The Alliance Wars
by vliegenvanger
Summary: this is a general continuation of BSG 16, Under Siege and TFS Ticonderoga. I have  changed several other things. although this story is categorized as crossover, it will mainly deal with the SG side and a bit of BSG. now includes the Ori
1. Chapter 1

**The continuation of Battlestar group 16, Under Siege and TFS Ticonderoga. Takes place immediately after the end of Under Siege. This story is a general continuation of the storyline, dealing with several things. **

**Standard disclaimer, I don't own anything, and I don't make any money from this fic.**

**Many thanks to Rudy Pena for the beta.**

**Well, that's it for all the notes, please R&R.**

**Bridge, TFS Deadelus**

**18:00 hours, January 20**

**Pegasus Galaxy**

"Colonel Caldwell, I Have General O'Neill on the line for you." A lieutenant reported from her station to the side of the bridge.

"Put him on." Caldwell replied.

The screen changed to the face of General O'Neill in the Atlantis control room with an active wormhole in the background. _"Colonel Caldwell, as you know, this morning we successfully defeated the hostile forces laying siege on Earth. During the liberation we discovered the Wraith are in league with the Pegasus Asgard, now identified as Vanir. We have sustained heavy losses to our space fleet and have millions of casualties on the planet. Your new orders are to link up with the Apollo and start gathering intelligence and attack targets of opportunity. We are now engaged in an unlimited war against the Wraith and Vanir forces. I have also assigned a new commander for the Pegasus Galaxy." O'Neill said._

Up until this time Caldwell had been silently listening to O'Neill. "Sheppard?"

"_That is correct Colonel; he has been promoted to the rank of Brigadier General effective immediately. He will arrive at the Midway station within a few days. The Pegasus Asgard might be after the cure for their cloning problem, you are to delete it if it might fall into enemy hands, the same goes for the Apollo. Colonel, I wish you the best of luck out there and I promise to send you reinforcements as soon as possible and also additional information about the state of Earth."_

"Yes General, thank you. Tell the people back home we'll kick some major Wraith and Vanir ass out here." Caldwell said.

"_That's the spirit Colonel. Atlantis out." _O'Neill said just before the connection was cut.

"Helmsmen, How soon can we link up with the Apollo?" Caldwell asked.

"Two hours if both ships head towards each other at maximum hyperdrive." The helmsmen replied.

"Okay, send the coordinates to the Apollo and after we have received a confirmation set course for the coordinates." Caldwell ordered. "Tell the crew to get some shut eye, we're going to be busy for quite a while."

Contact was made with the Apollo and minutes later the Deadelus was in hyperspace en-route to the rendezvous point. Most of the crew took the possibility to take a quick nap.

**Two hours later**

"The ship has returned to regular rotation sir." An officer reported.

"Very well, drop us out of hyperspace when we have reached the rendezvous." Caldwell ordered.

"Dropping out of hyperspace now." The helmsmen announced.

"We've got a contact, it's the Apollo. They are hailing us." The tactical officer reported.

"On screen." Caldwell ordered.

The screen changed to the bridge of the Apollo with Colonel Ellis in his chair. _"Colonel Caldwell, nice to see you again, though I wish it were under better circumstances." _Ellis said.

"So do I. We've got our new orders. We are to start gathering intelligence and attack targets of opportunity. The enemies include the Wraith and the Vanir, the Pegasus Asgard. I would also like to make a small announcement to both our crews. If you'll allow me." Caldwell said.

"_Sure fine by me._" Ellis responded. _"I'll have you patched into our PA system."_

"Crews of the Deadelus and Apollo, mere hours ago I received word from General O'Neill himself. Earth has been liberated. In the liberation however the planet suffered severe damage and millions of lives have been lost. As predicted a large portion of the fleet was either destroyed or damaged in such a way it would take a while to get back to full strength. Our orders are to gather intelligence on Wraith and Pegasus Asgard -also known as Vanir- forces. And if possible engage them. Colonel Shepherd has been promoted to Brigadier General and was appointed Commander PEGCOM –Pegasus Command-. I understand all of you want to know if you're families back home are safe, all I can tell you is that General O'Neill will have additional information sent as soon as it is available. For now I ask any and all of you to set your mind on finding and destroying the Wraith and Vanir. That's all."

"_So what's our next target?" _Ellis asked.

"First we're going to make a visit to Todd, we see if he knows anything about the attack or if he was responsible for it. We know several of his hideouts so we're going to visit them all until we have him."

"_Sounds like a plan to me."_ Ellis said.

Five minutes later both ships entered hyperspace en route to the first possible hide out of Todd.

**Bridge, TFS Deadelus**

**January 22**

**6:28 hours**

**One of Todd's hideouts**

Both battle cruisers exited hyperspace over a brown planet. Not much could be seen from space, only land and little water. In the far of distance the remains of a hive was floating harmless.

"Looks like the jackpot. That hive matches the last one known to be in Todd's possession. It's been shot up to hell months ago." The Tactical officer said.

"Scan the planet and remains for any life signs." Caldwell ordered.

"One life sign detected, its Wraith. It is located not far from the remains of a crashed dart."

"Assemble a dozen marines, have them prepare to beam down and take that Wraith into custody. Tell them to prefer stun weapons over lethal ones but to not be afraid to use lethal weapons if necessary." Caldwell ordered.

Five minutes later twelve marines were readied and loaded with Wraith stunners and M-4's. They were beamed down to the planet around the Wraith. They quickly secured him and within a minute they were all back on the ship again. The Wraith was put into restraints and the brig where Caldwell paid him a visit.

"Colonel Caldwell, what a pleasure to see you again, I had expected Colonel Sheppard to be here as well. I trust you are fine?" Todd asked as Caldwell walked in.

"I am fine, Earth however is not."

"What? What happened?" Todd asked innocently.

"Your palls attacked earth with dozens of hives and about twelve super hives. You happen to know anything about that?"

"I'm afraid not. See, several months ago, I was attacked by a rivaling clan; they possessed superior weaponry and armor. They boarded my hive and took all the data before destroying it. I was only able to get out by using a dart. On my way down I took some fire and was unable to get through the stargate. I've been stuck here ever since." Todd explained.

"That's a very touching story. Anyways, I don't care about you, what I want to know is if that clan that attacked you was the same as the one that attacked Earth and is now in league with the Vanir."

"Tell me again, why did you want to know that?" Todd asked.

"Vengeance, they crippled our fleet and killed millions of humans across the Milky Way galaxy. I have orders to gather Intel on any and all Wraith and Vanir forces so that when the reinforcements arrive we can kick their asses up one side of the galaxy down the other."

"I see. And what would you offer me in return for the information you seek?"

"You're life. With the help of some of our allies we might even be able to –in time- help you with your feeding problem."

"As you might be able to understand, my life is not so long anymore, I haven't had a decent feeding in months." Todd said.

"Perhaps we can find a few stray Wraith drones that will make for a delicious snack for you?" Caldwell said.

"Though not as tasty as a real human, especially one with an ancient gene, a drone once a while would suffice to still my hunger."

"So we have a deal. You give us as much as possible information about Wraith and perhaps even Vanir strongholds, and in return we kidnap a few drones for you to feast upon." Caldwell summarized.

"Deal." Todd replied as he held out his feeding hand.

**Bridge**

**1821 hours**

**Near a minor Wraith shipyard**

"Drop us out of hyperspace." Caldwell ordered. The Deadelus and Apollo quickly exited hyperspace just outside the system where, according to Todd, the Wraith had a minor shipyard. "Initiate scans of the system."

"Scans show several cruisers and one hive." The tactical officer said. After a while a more detailed scan came back. "there are four cruisers under construction on the planet itself, and two of the defending cruisers are not yet complete."

"But the other three cruisers and that hive are?" Caldwell asked.

"Yes sir."

"Alright, get me Ellis."

"On the line." The navigational officer said. He also handled comm. When he wasn't too busy with other things.

"Colonel Ellis, How about we go in, draw their attention, wear them down a bit, and you come in from behind to finish whatever is still standing?" Caldwell asked.

"Sounds like a plan to me; I'll give you one minute head start before we'll go in." Ellis said.

"Copy, we'll commence hyperdrive jump in one minute. Deadelus out." Caldwell said. The connection was cut and the Deadelus was made battle ready.

"Okay guys, get us in." Caldwell ordered. The crew already knew what to do so saying more was unnecessary.

The Deadelus entered hyperspace only to reappear within kilometers away from the hive and its cruisers.

"Fire at will."

The Deadelus opened up with its beam weapons on the hive since it is the biggest threat. The hive quickly tries to launch darts but is destroyed before even a dozen darts make it off. The darts are quickly dispatched by the railguns. The next target of the Deadelus was the nearest cruiser. Unfortunately the attack on the hive had put the Deadelus in the wrong position, while the cruisers were able to blast away at the underside of the Deadelus. Fortunately the Apollo exited hyperspace from the other side, destroying two of the uncompleted cruisers within moments after exiting hyperspace. Minutes later all remaining Wraith forces in orbit were destroyed.

The two battle cruisers positioned themselves over the shipyards and beamed down Special Forces to gather a Wraith data recorder that was bound to be near the unfinished cruisers.

**Bridge**

"Colonel, Lieutenant Speirs reports that they've found a lead to the recorder." Major Pat Meyers reported. Pat Meyers was one of the original bridge officers aboard the Deadelus; she had been there since the siege of Atlantis in 2005 and over time promoted from Captain to Major.

"Good, keep a constant lock on their signals and make sure we can destroy those ships the moment our people are clear." Caldwell replied.

"Yes sir." Meyers replied.

The Deadelus waited a few more minutes for the Special Forces before they received the signal to beam the team up.

"The teams are on board sir." Meyers replied.

"Okay, fire at will, destroy everything down there." Caldwell ordered.

"Incoming ships." a lieutenant reported.

"What kind?" Caldwell asked.

"Unknown, power vaguely matches Asgard vessels." The lieutenant said.

"They are firing!" Meyers reported moments before the ship was rocked by orange plasma bolts.

"Vanir ships. It has to be. Can we handle them?" Caldwell asked.

"At the current rate, no chance! We're outnumbered seven to one. And even though these ships aren't worth much, combined they pack a hell of a punch." Meyers replied.

"Alright, try to get some shots off at the shipyards, then bug out and copy to the Apollo." Caldwell ordered.

"Yes sir."

The Deadelus and Apollo each fired several beams at surface targets and even launched a few missiles before they entered hyperspace for a safe destination.

**Conference room**

**Atlantis **

**January 28**

**1000 hours**

The president and his war cabinet were assembled in the new conference room. Mere hours ago the Wraith database had been cracked and even now scientists were going over the raw data stored in it. What they'd already found was scaring.

"So General O'Neill, what did your scientists found out already?" Hayes asked.

"What we can conclude so far is that the Wraith have been working with the Vanir ever since our first encounter with them. The Vanir and their cloning program allow the Wraith to not need normal humans to feed on. It's why we weren't aware of such a large force being assembled for an attack on the Milky Way galaxy." O'Neill said.

"And how large are their forces right now?" the Secretary of Defense asked.

"Our guess is nearly 100 hives and four times that many cruisers. We also know about fourteen shipyards for hives and twenty eight for cruisers. We don't yet have a number on the amount of Vanir ships but since they were willing to commit 14 ships against our two ships for only a cruiser shipyard, they might have much more of them."

"All that against our two battle cruisers! How the hell are we supposed to win that? Our shipbuilding capacity is limited to only four 304's and hopefully one 305 a year while they have ten times our capacity." The Secretary of Defense said.

"Well, for starters, we are currently repairing most of our fleet from the liberation of Earth. We're nine months away from having our first 305 ready. And thanks to the data we recovered from the Wraith storage device we've determined exact fleet positions, comm. Frequencies and plans for nearly all Wraith forces. In addition we've already located four prime Vanir worlds and several colonies." O'Neill said.

"And it's about time my marines get some action, how long until you have some targets for platoon strength attacks?" General Conway of the Marines asked.

"Soon, we are currently trying to find out how many wraith strongholds are without orbital guard." O'Neill said.

"Why are you looking for planets without orbital guard? I am sure you could manage going through the stargate." The Secretary of Defense asked.

"If the Wraith have ships in orbit it would be easy for them to destroy the gate and either capture or kill us with an orbital bombardment." General Conway explained.

"And we wouldn't want that to happen and we can't always have a ship everywhere. At this time we only have two ships capable of combat operations in the Pegasus Galaxy. The first one to be ready is the Odyssey, she'll be ready in about two weeks and then has to make a travel of four days with the ZPM integrated in her systems. The other ships will take much longer to be repaired, and have a 3 week trip before they reach Pegasus." O'Neill said.

"General O'Neill, What can we do to improve this situation?" Hayes asked.

"We already have a few outposts, but with the increasing needs of our fleet we need more, we need naquadah and trinium for ship construction. The Colonials and Jaffa are already helping us but in the long run we need our own sources. What I suggest is that we buy older Jaffa and colonial ships for use in this galaxy. There are still a lot of undeveloped and unclaimed planets with loads of resources. Also, there are asteroids sometimes completely made up out of Naquadah or Trinium. Like the one that nearly hit Earth after Anubis set it on a collision course to circumvent the Asgard treaty. If we could put those asteroids in a safe orbit or course we could very well mine it without the troubles of environment, gravity or claims by other nations." O'Neill said.

The Secretary of Defense continued. "Ever since the disclosure of the program the DOD (Department of Defense) has made plans to colonize over two dozen planets in five years. These colonies would serve multiple purposes. Initially, they should have the capacity to build ships, mine the materials and support a population of over five million after the first year, with an increase of one million each year for the next five years. From then on, we think the infrastructure should be good enough to support an increase of two point five million people a year. We already have a list of possible candidates, all our allies have no interest in these planets and they are all uninhabited."

"Why haven't we started this earlier?" Hayes asked.

"The IOA didn't want to hear anything about it. They didn't want too many of our people out there fearing they couldn't control them all. We all know how difficult it was to allow the construction of the Pegasus base, let alone the Midway station after the first ones fate." O'Neill said.

"How about Naquadriah General O'Neill, don't we need that to power our hyperdrives?" Admiral Sir Stanhope of the Navy asked.

"In return for protection and civilian technology the Kelownans have agreed to supply us with as much Naquadriah as we need."

"Really, I thought all the Kelownans were interested in was military tech." Hayes said.

"Well, we stationed several squadrons of fighters and bombers with enough ammunition to fight an entire war in case the other states declare war. That solved their problem of military needs. It's not like they have any use for naquadriah anyways. Naquadriah is too unstable for a civilian power source, and if they would use it on their own planet they might crack the planet in half, considering how much naquadah and naquadriah it has." O'Neill said.

"Okay. General O'Neill, I want you to do a last check on those potential colonies, searching for local population, other powers that might have claims on it and potential threats to Earth, like diseases and such. If there are none found you may begin colonization within the month." Hayes said.

"Yes sir." O'Neill said.

"Alright, if there is nothing more I wish to conclude this meeting." While seeing no responses he dismissed everyone.

**February 2**

**P83-329**

**Deadelus**

The flagship of the Tau'ri fleet, the Deadelus sped through space heading for a hive. When the ship was close enough it opened fire with its plasma weapons quickly destroying the hive. While doing so, another hive emerged behind the ship and unleashed a full barrage on the Deadelus. The Deadelus took the punishment on its Asgard shields.

As the Deadelus turned around to face the second hive a swarm of Vanir ships dropped out of hyperspace. These small and fast attack vessels only had moderate shielding and weaponry, but for its size quite lethal. The ships quickly split up to harass the Deadelus from every angle possible.

Inside the Deadelus, on the bridge the commander issued target orders and contacted the commander of the marines they were sent to protect.

"Eagle six, get your ass through that gate stat, we're getting pounded up here." Caldwell said.

"_Just give us five more minutes. We're just haulin' back the cloning pod we captured, the thing's as heavy as an elephant and doesn't walk on itself._" Eagle six responded.

"Then by the time you're through the gate we'll be a slowly expanding field of scrap metal." Caldwell responded.

"_Why don't you come back to the planet and we'll tag the pod with a locator beacon so you can beam it up."_

"Roger that, we'll be in range in a minute or so." Caldwell said to Eagle six before issuing additional orders to the crew. "Swing back towards the planet and beam that damn pod up."

The battle cruiser turned around and came closer to the planet. When the ship was within range a white beam picked up the clone pod.

"_Deadelus, this is Eagle six, we're going through the gate now, thanks for the backup, good luck up there."_

"Copy, we're leaving." Caldwell said before the turned to the major beside him. "Get us into hyperspace, Midway station maximum safe speed."

The ship entered hyperspace leaving the Vanir and Wraith forces behind them.

**Several hours later**

The ship had calmed down after the short but furious battle with the Wraith and Vanir forces. The damage was minimal. The ship had racked up quite a kill count, one hive and three-quarter of its dart complement and three Vanir ships. To the side of the bridge, where the plaque of the Deadelus was placed, a crewmember was adding the four kills to the long list. The price of the battle was a clone pod used by the Wraith to create humans as food or Wraith drones. The thing would be taken back to the midway station where a team of Asgard, Nox and Tau'ri scientists would examine the thing for anything useful.

"Colonel, I have the midway station on the line."

"Put it on the screen." Caldwell ordered. The screen changed into General Sheppard on board the midway station. "General Sheppard. To what do I owe you the pleasure?"

"_I heard you had a present for the scientists here. Just a few minutes ago McKay arrived and he is on the brink of driving me insane. I have no idea why he would be so interested in a cloning pod."_ Sheppard said.

"I don't have a clue either. We'll arrive at midway in about four days, if you really want me to I can send the pod through the gate, at least it'll give Rodney something to do."

"_No, that's not necessary, I heard you racked up a good count, how much do you have now?"_

"Nearly too much, if we keep this up we'll have to extend the bridge with a few feet by the end of the year."

"_I don't think the shipyards have the time to do so. Anyways, get here asap, we'll have the supplies you'll need for an extended stay in the Pegasus galaxy ready for you. Cherish what you'll get, Earth's been hit hard and won't be able to give you all you want so expect military rations for the following supply runs."_

"Copy, Deadelus out." Caldwell said before ending the connection.

**February 7**

**Vanir outpost**

**Charlie company, 1****st**** battalion, 7****th**** marine regiment, first marine division**

This small Vanir outpost was the first to be attacked by Earth land forces. Two days earlier the Apollo had cleared the ships in orbit and was now standing guard over the planet, ready to give fire support if needed. Because the strength of a Vanir soldier was unknown but by the experience of Sheppard years earlier they didn't want to take any chances, so they sent an entire company instead of a platoon. The soldiers loaded up on extra grenades, grenade launchers and rpg's.

According to the information gathered this outpost was experimenting on humans to solve their cloning problem. The station was an easy mark as the communication systems of this station seemed to be old and unreliable, the Vanir wouldn't notice it if the outpost was silent for a few days. By the time the Vanir would care to send a ship or expedition, the marines would be long gone.

The complex consisted of four buildings, placed around a landing pad for their warships, connected with each other by tubes. The plan was that the marines would close in as much as possible, breach the tubes and clear the complex with room by room searches. Any Vanir that could be taken alive was to be taken as a pow, so far they had little success with that. If they'd find any humans for studies they would be freed and taken back to Midway.

As the marines closed in on their designated entry points they were not detected. Probably because the Vanir did not fear any attack on their secret outpost. When the marines had reached their entry points they placed high charged shaped explosives to create an entrance. On cue the four charges detonated. The walls however did not fall inwards, a final kick was required, loosing several important seconds.

As the marines entered the facility they encountered nearly no opposition, just one or two scientists who were traveling between the buildings. One was quickly captured while the other was shot as it tried to alert the others, both didn't wear their battle suits. The marines quickly pushed forwards, knowing that they'd be sitting ducks in the long hallways.

The first real hostile contact was made when two Vanir in battle suits entered through the door leading into one of the buildings. One raised an orange force field, while the other took his pistol and started shooting. The marines quickly went to the walls and floor for cover and opened fire. As they noticed that their bullets didn't have any effect they tried grenade launchers. When the grenade launchers failed to bring them down, an AT-4 to the side of the corridor, circumventing the shields finally brought the Vanir down.

In the other hallways, the marines did not immediately encounter Vanir soldiers but eventually did run into them. When they did, they could not always use an AT-4 because of the power of the blast would also kill the one firing it. A combination of grenades, flash bangs, grenade launchers and a whole lot of bullets did eventually manage to take them down one by one.

Within half an hour the entire complex was cleared of Vanir soldiers. In total two Vanir were taken prisoner, while twenty four humans were freed. After an hour of searching for intelligence the marines left through the stargate to the midway station. This did require them to upload a macro to connect the current gate to the rest of the gates stationed in the void. The only thing left was for the Apollo to destroy the station with a single nuclear warhead.

**February 12**

**Midway station command center**

Newly appointed commander of the Earth forces in the Pegasus Galaxy CINCPEGCOM General Sheppard was going over the regular status reports from the two battle cruisers under his command. Both ships had gone on a rampage throughout the Pegasus galaxy. Now however the Wraith were recovering. On its last run the Apollo had sustained moderate damage to its sensor and weapons array. Currently the primary problem was the lack of ships. The Apollo just took a beating and would need a few days to repair, the Deadelus so far was still nearly undamaged, and soon the Odyssey would arrive at the midway station.

"General." Someone said.

No response.

"General Sheppard?" Lorne asked.

"Huh, oh Lorne, what's up?" Sheppard asked.

"The Odyssey just called in, they'll be here in about half an hour." Lorne said.

"Okay, great." Sheppard said. When Lorne didn't leave Sheppard continued. "Anything else Colonel?"

"Ehm, Why do you want the Odyssey to come by the station, and not just head on to the Pegasus Galaxy?"

"Because I'm gonna hitch a ride and use the Odyssey to gain us some more friends with ships."

"And who might that be?"

"The Travelers, Colonel."

"You do know we've tried the last month but without result, right?"

"Yeah, but I think I know a way to reach them." Sheppard said.

"Well, good luck sir."

**Well, that's chapter one for now, I hope you liked it and please leave a review.**


	2. Chapter 2

**The next chapter, enjoy and leave a review! thanks to Rudy Pena for the beta  
**

**M28-652**

**Bridge, TFS Odyssey**

**February 15, 2015**

The Odyssey was orbiting a lush green planet. This particular planet once housed a research outpost back in the days that Atlantis was still in the Pegasus galaxy. The planet was also the place where first contact was made with the Travelers. They disabled Sheppard's jumper and kidnapped him.

"General Sheppard, are you sure this is going to work, we've been here for three days already." Emerson asked as Sheppard entered the bridge.

"Yeah, we've been running the signal non-stop, they should pick it up soon." Sheppard said. He stared at the main screen. "Perhaps you should show off part of the tech onboard, like the plasma beams, phase tech and shields."

"Okay." Emerson turned to the tactical officer. "Launch a few target drones; make sure the Asgard weaponry is properly aligned."

"Yes sir." A few minutes later several drones were launched and the Asgard Weaponry made quick work of them.

"I guess those work properly." Sheppard said.

"You doubted the shipyard workers?"

"No, it's just…"

"We've got a contact. It's Traveler." The Tactical officer reported. The traveler ship exited hyperspace a few kilometers away from the Odyssey, it looked like any other Traveler ship; old, ugly and bruised by the many years of running from the Wraith.

"Hail them." Both Emerson and Sheppard ordered instantly.

"We're already receiving a hail. Putting it on the screen"

"_This is Katana Labrea of the Travelers, we received your message, what do you want?" _

"It's nice to see you to Katana, we're fine, how are you?" Sheppard said.

"_Not as bad as several other ships, they've been destroyed, where were you the last few months, the Wraith had some ally that managed to track down eight of our ships, twelve thousand of our kind have been killed so far." _Katana said with a hint of anger.

"I am sorry for that, the Wraith attacked Earth, and they caused massive damage to our planet and our fleet. That's why we weren't here to keep the Wraith busy."

"_How is that possible, I thought your home world was safe from Wraith attacks?"_

"It was, until they found a way to travel between galaxies. We've lost millions, perhaps even billions of lives when debris from the wraith fleet we destroyed impacted the planet."

"_By the Ancestors, how were they capable of reaching your home?"_

"Those allies you mentioned, they are called Vanir, an offspring of the people who gave us the advanced technology we operate on our ships. They gave power sources to the Wraith allowing them to travel between galaxies."

"_Do you need our help somehow?"_

"Yes. Immediately after the attack the Deadelus and Apollo have been fighting the Wraith, now the Odyssey joins them. What we need however are ships that can support our ground attacks, we have the troops but not the ships to cover them from space. We already have a long list of potential targets and our marines are ready to go, but we just don't have enough ships."

"_You can't ask us to bring ships full of civilians to planets known to have hostile forces on them, it'd be suicide."_ Katana replied.

"I already thought as much, how many people do your ships hold?" Sheppard asked.

"_Anywhere from several hundred to several thousand, why?"_

"We have some room to spare on the midway station; we could house about twelve thousand people there, more as soon as the new sections are completed. They might be bunked with station personnel or marines but considering your people are used to living on space ships I doubt lack of space will be a problem."

"_I might be able to bring such a proposition to the counsel, but it'll take time, how can I reach you?"_

"With your permission I'd like to transmit some information, it is a program you'll need to program into the DHD of a gate and it'll automatically dial the midway station. Another part is the iris deactivation code, you will need to send it and receive a positive reply before you go through the gate or you'll be dead." Sheppard said.

"_Fine, I'll let you know within the week."_

The connection was abruptly cut and the Traveler ship entered hyperspace.

**X-305 construction site**

**Atlantis, Earth moon**

**February 23**

The construction of the X-305 was starting to take shape, the hull was already in place, though at some places not completely so to allow for the installation of large pieces, like the hyperdrive.

Today, the president of the Tau'ri federation was making a trip to see how the construction of Earth's hope of winning the Wraith war was going. He was met by the commander of the X-305 project, General Samantha Carter.

"Mister President, it's nice to see you again sir." Carter said as she greeted the president.

"Nice to see you too general. So tell me, are you still on schedule?"

"Yes sir, we plan to have it complete by the end of November, and ready for combat by the end of December."

"How exactly is this ship going to defeat the Wraith while a whole fleet of Asgard, Earth, Jaffa and Colonial ships barely managed to lure them into the sun?"

"Well, this ship had four times as much Asgard Plasma Beam Weapons."

"I thought those didn't make a dent on the super hives?"

"They don't. But for starters, these weapons will have more power because of better power generation. In addition to that we have two new options. As you may already know the weapons are housed in turrets of three canons each. Besides firing individually, they can fire as one, increasing its destructive power. The second option is to bundle three or more turrets together, to create a truly destructive beam that not even a super hive can withstand. In fact, only Atlantis will be able to withstand that kind of firepower, nothing else known to us can."

"Let's hope it stays that way. So I heard that the 305 will be reclassified from a battle cruiser to a battleship."

"Yes sir, it dawned on us that the firepower and protection of this ship will be much more then the Deadelus class, and would be more akin to a battleship then a battle cruiser. As soon as it is commissioned it will be the first ship in the BB-305 line. Now we only need a name for the ship."

"That's one of the reasons why I'm here, the X-305 committee has decided on a name. She'll be called the BB-305 Sol. In honor of the sun, whiteout which we wouldn't have been able to take down the Wraith super hives." Hayes said.

"That's a good name, sol, Latin for the sun, and in several ancient dialects also the word used to name the sun."

"That's exactly what the committee thought. They'd also made up a list of future names but I told them not to get ahead of themselves."

"I understand sir. Why don't we start that tour now?" Carter asked.

"Sure, show me the way." Hayes said.

Carter made a gesture as to you first and they walked towards a walkway that connected the ship with the shipyard. Around the ship people were floating around in the weightlessness around them, while adding plating and other things. Before they entered the walkway however, Carter stopped him.

"Before you set a foot on that walkway, you'll need to put on those boots, they'll keep you from floating away. There is no gravity on and around the ship to make construction easier. The boots are magnetized and will keep you on the ground. Wouldn't want anyone to float away."

"Of course not." Hayes said. He quickly took his shoes off and put on the boots. The president's security detail had already been equipped with the boots.

"Shall we go sir?"

**Bridge, Odyssey**

**March 1 **

**0200 hours**

The Odyssey's bridge was quiet this night. No operations were planned for the next twelve hours and the ship was in hyperspace. General Sheppard passed by on his daily training run.

"General, having a nice walk sir?" the XO asked.

"Yeah, I've got to do something to stay in shape, now that they put me behind a desk."

"Couldn't agree more sir." The XO replied.

While Sheppard paused to catch his breath the communications console beeped.

The XO opened the message that had came in. "General, Midway just relayed a message from Atlantis, O'Neill wants you back home ASAP, something about the Ticonderoga."

"Then let's not keep them waiting, check for the nearest secure stargate." Sheppard said.

The XO checked the database for the criteria. "There is a secure gate at about twenty minutes hyperspace away, shall I change course?"

"Yes, and also wake up Emerson."

Five minutes later Emerson entered the bridge, he was immediately briefed by Sheppard and received new orders.

Fifteen minutes after that the Odyssey exited hyperspace over a barren uninhabited world with a stargate. Sheppard and a detachment of marines beamed down, they uploaded the forwarding macro and soon the gate was connected to the Midway station. After verifying IDC's Sheppard stepped through and the marines were beamed up, after which the Odyssey set course for a very special destination.

**0943 hours**

"Commander, we are exiting hyperspace." The XO said.

The Odyssey exited hyperspace to be greeted by the Apollo and Deadelus. Sheppard had a bit of revenge planned.

"Receiving a hail from the Deadelus."

"On screen." Emerson ordered.

The bald head of the commander of the Deadelus appeared on screen and was quickly joined by the head of Colonel Ellis.

"Paul, nice of you to join us." Caldwell greeted the commander, to which he received a polite nod. "I assume you know the plan? The Deadelus and Apollo distract them while you carry out your task."

"Yes, I understand. I do have one suggestion." Emerson said. "It might be better for the Odyssey to jump in further away from our target; they won't even notice we are there until we engage them. It will require us to leave a bit earlier."

"Okay, sounds like a good idea, let's do that. How much of a head start do you need? Will an hour be enough?"

"More than enough."

"Okay, leave now, we'll follow soon."

A few minutes later the Odyssey entered hyperspace again.

**1139 hours**

"Sir, we're in geosynchronous orbit over the targets. We're clear of any potential targets for the Deadelus and Apollo. The phase technology is holding up properly, both the ZPM and Asgard core are performing at peak efficiency."

"Alright, be ready to phase us back into reality and power the Asgard plasma weapons. Also ready the Horizon Platform." Emerson said.

"Deadelus and Apollo are exiting hyperspace."

The two battle cruisers exited hyperspace over the Vanir home world. The Vanir fleet, consisting of over fifty warships, mostly smaller size moved from their defensive positions over the capital to engage the battle cruisers, which were near one of the planet's moons.

"Vanir fleet is clear of the planet, and will be out of range in two minutes." The XO said.

"Alright. Open bomb bay doors, power up the Horizon platform and lock in the target information. Prepare to phase back into normal reality." Emerson ordered.

The XO entered the commands into the system and all people responsible quickly executed them.

"All ready sir, just waiting for your command."

"Then do it. Weapons free."

On that command, the Odyssey phased back into the normal reality, the moment they were back, the ship launched the large Horizon Weapons platform. The enormous missile streaked away from its mother ship and moved towards the planet below. As it moved through the upper atmosphere it left a trail of fire behind. As the missile came close to the planet it deployed the actual nuclear warheads. The targets were shipyards, manufacturing stations, research stations and major military and political installations. On cue all warheads detonated, destroying an area the size of Australia. Millions of Vanir died and started to download. The download center would be busy for the next couple of months.

"All primaries and most of the secondary's are destroyed." The XO reported.

"Coma about, attack those Vanir ships in the back." Emerson ordered.

Only a few Vanir ships had actually broken off to fight the Odyssey. The rest had continued on to the Deadelus and Apollo. Those two ships were being harassed by Vanir ships. Beside the initial three kills, they had only been able to destroy three more.

Now that the Odyssey entered weapons range with those coming for them, they opened up with all their beam weapons. They all focused on one ship and destroyed it within seconds. Now secondary weapons fire like the railguns and missiles joined the mix, they however, did little damage. The remaining three Vanir ships had broken up and were coming at the Odyssey from multiple directions. The ship's plasma weapons were divided and therefore were unable to deliver a kill shot.

"Sir, Deadelus reports shields at 28 percent, they request to be allowed to retreat." The XO said.

"Granted, tell the Apollo to disengage as well and return to the rally point, when they're gone do the same." Emerson said.

The Deadelus quickly turned around, firing a few nukes, which destroy two Vanir ships attempting to stop the Deadelus and enters hyperspace. Meanwhile the Apollo is making one last run after some Vanir ships, destroying two of them before following the Deadelus into hyperspace. The odyssey makes one last sensor sweep to see the results of their work before it also enters hyperspace en route to the rally point.

**Control center, Midway station**

**1536**

The control room of the midway station had a direct view of the gate room. The gate room was mostly the same as the old one. This gate room was just a small piece of the entire midway station. The only difference with the old gate room was that it had a blast door and shield in the middle to separate the midway and Pegasus gates if necessary. Both gates had their own independently powered irises.

The Pegasus gate activated. It started spinning and one by one the chevrons were locked. When all chevrons were locked the gate opened the wormhole. From the start of the dialing procedure the iris was activated. The trinium-titanium iris locked into place.

"Incoming wormhole!" the PA Announced.

"Who is it?" Colonel Lorne asked.

"We haven't yet received an IDC sir." The Gate room technician said.

"We are receiving a transmission, its video and audio."

"On screen." Lorne ordered.

The screen to the side of the control room changed from the daily status reports on the station to the video feed. The face of Larrin appeared.

"_Hello? Your General Sheppard -congrats to him for the promotion by the way- told me we could contact him when we reached a decision. Now, we've already managed to get the gate to dial you, but could you please tell us what to do with that IDC thingy?"_ Larrin said.

"Larrin, this is Colonel Lorne of the Midway station. You need to type in the code you received from General Sheppard and send it. Then we will verify it and if it is the proper code we will deactivate the Iris so you can come through."

"_Okay, sending now."_ Larrin replied as she sent the code.

"Sir, we are receiving an IDC, it's the one given to the Travelers."

"Okay, deactivate the Iris." Lorne ordered. He them turned towards the screen as the Iris receded. "The Iris is deactivated, you can come through."

**Office of the Commander of the Space Forces**

**Atlantis**

**March 2 0930 hours**

As Sheppard stepped into the office of the Commander of the Space Forces he was greeted by General O'Neill.

"Sheppard"

"Sir"

"It's good to see you again." O'Neill said.

"Likewise, sir."

"You're probably wondering why I recalled you."

"Yes sir, I'm surprised it couldn't be done over a transmission through the gate."

"Yeah, well. The thing is that the Ticonderoga mission has revealed some, disturbing facts. It also gave us hope." O'Neill said as he handed Sheppard a folder with a debriefing of Colonel Grant, the commander of the Ticonderoga. "As you can see, we got into a war with the Aschen, we know a bit about them, but not enough. The problem is that we didn't even know they had warships, let alone as advanced as these, they might not have been as powerful as our own but they might still pose a threat. That threat in combination with our development of a large number of colonies prompted the need for added security back home. This however will influence your command greatly. As of now, there will only be four more 304's sent to the Pegasus Galaxy." Feeling an argument coming he quickly continued. "That is until either the situation changes or somewhere at the end of this year. By then the BB-305, Sol will be ready and deployed. Now, the fun part is that we recovered four ancient warships, damaged but we will be able to repair them before the Sol will leave. In addition the Asgard are preparing a punitive campaign as they call it against the Vanir. They have promised the fleet will be part of the sol fleet. In addition we discovered a ZPM factory and we will slowly start to equip all our 304's with ZPM's, ships in Pegasus being the first in line. Also Janus, the ancient we found will modify the phase technology on the Odyssey to be able to 'see' other ancient warships phased out. He will also supply us with possible coordinates. For now you will have to wage a defensive war."

"Sir, I do hope you understand that if you want me to prevent the Wraith and Vanir from coming back to the Milky Way galaxy, I need to be on the offensive."

"I understand, and in about nine months you will have a force the likes of which the Pegasus galaxy has not seen since the Ancient-Wraith war. Until then you will just have to keep them busy, I understand that the Travelers are willing to join the fight under certain conditions."

"True, they want a place to unload their civilians, a safe place. And they want us to upgrade their ships. On the long term they want us to provide security and a guarantee for a safe place." Sheppard said.

"Will you accept it?"

"It's not really my choice; this is something for the president. I'm sure we can house their people, we can also make small technological adjustments to their ships, I'm not sure about incorporating full Asgard systems though. Basically we still cannot share that kind of technology. If we would, we would also have to give it to our other allies, like the Colonials and Jaffa."

"This is assuming they remain independent, as a new member of the alliance. What if they became part of the Tau'ri Federation? Wouldn't that make their ships, our ships?"

"I guess. I'm not sure if they'd agree though, the Travelers are very independent and they might not like being connected to us that way." Sheppard explained.

"Well, I understand you have a special relationship with one of the Traveler commanders, talk to her."

**Bridge, TFS Phoenix**

**Near the Cau system**

**March 8 1452 hours**

The TFS Phoenix under Colonel Mitchell's command had received her new marching orders. First she'd await the arrival of a Jaffa fleet, and then it would set course for the Aschen home world for some Intel gathering.

"Sir, Jaffa fleet is exiting hyperspace." A lieutenant reported.

"What's its composition?" Mitchell asked.

"Four Hak'tyl's, and eleven Ha'taks with a bunch of al'kesh. They all seem to be of the upgraded kind."

"That's one mighty big fleet for the Free Jaffa." Mitchell commented.

"We're receiving a hail."

"On screen"

The screen changed to the face of a Jaffa whose symbol had been burned away, something that was not uncommon in the Free Jaffa Nation. Behind him the bridge of the new Hak'tyl showed some differences from the old Ha'taks. It wasn't all that golden, and it didn't have symbolic inscriptions in the walls.

"Colonel Mitchell, I am Rak'nor, it is an honor to finally meet you. I come here with greetings from Teal'c and Bra'tak and the first Free Jaffa battle fleet, ready to assist you."

"It's good to meet you to Rak'nor, I've heard quite a bit about you. I assume you've been briefed about our mission?"

"Yes I have, we are to provide support during your recon of the Aschen home world."

"That's correct. I'd first like to go over some of the last details before we leave. I'll send them to your ship, just some tactical points and com frequencies."

"I understand."

Ten minutes later they were all ready and the fleet departed for the Aschen home world. The home world itself wasn't that far away from the Cau system, which was likely the reason why the Aschen were present near the Cau system. With the Jaffa hyper drives, the trip would take about eight hours. The Colonial units sent to the Cau system had already secured its only entrance.

**Aschen home world P4C-970**

**2300 hours**

The Phoenix and the first Jaffa battle fleet exited hyperspace not far away from the Aschen home world. What awaited them was unexpected. A massive fleet was gathered around the home world. In orbit of the planet, more ships could be seen under construction. Literally dozens of shipyards were producing all kinds of ships.

As the alliance units started to get into formation, and gather Intel, the Aschen fleet turned to engage them. Within minutes the two fleets were within weapons range, first the Aschen bomber like craft, and soon also the capital ships. Green Aschen weapons fire was exchanged with the orange and blue-white plasma from the alliance fleet.

Death glider squadrons clashed with Aschen fighters while the Al'kesh were trying to attack the enemy capital ships.

At first the Aschen took losses, several destroyers and frigates were blown up as their shields were penetrated by the plasma of the Jaffa ships and the Phoenix. Unfortunately the firepower of the enemy was devastating; hundreds of warships, all firing simultaneously did a number on all the ships of the Jaffa. Even the Phoenix registered a significant decrease in shield strength. Within minutes after the start, a ha'tak was destroyed.

"_Colonel Mitchell, despite the fact that I am willing to fight to the death, I think we need to withdraw."_ Rak'nor said as another Ha'tak was destroyed.

"Agreed, recall your death gliders, tell them they have two minutes to get back aboard, after that we're leaving." Mitchell replied. He then turned to the Tactical officer. "Major, prime every nuclear warhead we have, prepare to fire them simultaneous as we withdraw from the battlefield."

As the death gliders returned to their mother ships the Aschen closed in. As the last Death Glider landed on its mother ship the Jaffa fleet and the Phoenix turned around and entered hyperspace. Moments before the Phoenix entered hyperspace a full dozen Mark 9 missiles were launched into the Aschen fleet.

These mark nine 'Gatebusters' made their way over to the Aschen fleet, which was still closing in, unable to turn around or come to a quick stop. Once the Aschen recognized the threat the 'Gatebusters' posed they fired everything they got. Fighters and bombers alike tried to intercept the missiles. Four were destroyed within seconds after the Aschen opened fire. The rest linked their AI's together and started following ever changing flight paths. They divided the Aschen's firepower to increase their chance. In the end, all but two missiles were destroyed. The remaining two however, destroyed nearly a tenth of the Aschen fleet as they detonated. Every ship in the blast radius, be they a fighter, destroyer, cruiser or dreadnought was destroyed.

**Hyperspace**

**TFS Phoenix**

"Colonel Mitchell, the data package has been compiled." The XO reported. The package included information on the enemy ships, their numbers, weapons, propulsion and shields, as well as information about the Aschen home world itself.

"Alright, send it to Atlantis and Rak'nor's Hak'tyl. Do we have any readings from the damage our nukes did?"

"The two that got through caused massive damage, nearly every ship in the blast radius was destroyed." The XO said.

"I assume that's in the package as well?"

"Yes sir."

"Okay, I'm gonna take some time off, wake me when we reach the Cau System or when something comes up."


	3. Chapter 3

**AN: the third chapter Enjoy!**

**Please R&R**

**Many thanks to Rudy Pena for the Beta**

**Bridge**

**TFS Deadelus**

**March 28, 2015**

**On route to Wraith outpost**

Even though General Sheppard had relayed the order to only wage a defensive war, once in a while a good target presented itself. Right now the Deadelus was on the way to an under defended Wraith outpost. Intel suggested the target was only defended by a few squadrons of darts and a cruiser, no match for the Deadelus.

The situation wasn't pretty. There were now four Tau'ri warships in the Pegasus galaxy, the Deadelus, Apollo, Odyssey and the Vasilev. In addition there were fourteen Traveler ships docked at the midway station undergoing massive repairs and upgrades. All that was supposed to protect the Tau'ri interests in the Pegasus Galaxy and also the planets of the Pegasus alliance, a coalition of planets spanning several dozen worlds, including the Genii.

From his seat the bald commander of the Deadelus watched as his crew worked quickly and quietly to prepare the ship for combat.

Major Pat Meyers worked off to the side as the XO of the Deadelus, Major Marks, the previous and first XO was back on Earth undergoing training for the new BB-305, he would be its XO.

"Sir, we are receiving new instructions from Midway." Meyers reported from her station as she read a message that just came in.

"What are they?" Caldwell asked.

"We are to change course to an Alliance world not far away. Before we lost contact it was under attack by at least one hive and two cruisers."

"Alright, do it." Caldwell ordered. Ever since the orders came down to wage a defensive war the Wraith and Vanir had gone back into the galaxy and attacked dozens of worlds, some belonging to the Pegasus Alliance.

**2 hours later**

**Vedena**

As the Deadelus exited hyperspace they were greeted by the sight of not one, but three hive ships. The hives were escorted by eight cruisers and two Vanir destroyer class ships. There were dozens of darts flying in orbit. Even more were coming up from the planet or going down, no doubt to cull people. This world had a quite large population; it was one of the refugee planets and was deemed reasonably safe.

The Deadelus and its crew quickly got to work. Asgard plasma weapons were powered up and aimed at the hives and cruisers. Railguns were prepared to intercept the masses of darts that would no doubt soon be heading their way. Furthermore several nuclear warheads were prepared in the transporter room, in case they could disable the Wraith's jamming field. In addition to that, a signal was sent to Midway, advising them of the situation. It was up for the commanders there to decide if they'd send ground forces to clear the planet of Wraith forces.

As soon as the darts, which were ahead of the Wraith fleet got into range of the Deadelus they opened fire raining large amounts of not so deadly plasma on the Deadelus' shields. The Deadelus responded by firing its railguns destroying several darts in the opening salvos. Many more darts would soon be destroyed by the railguns.

As cruisers and hives alike got into range they opened up with their plasma cannons, which did much more damage than the weapons of the darts. No matter though, the Asgard shields were the best in existence. Especially now that the Deadelus was equipped with a ZPM that was recovered from Janus' ZPM factory the shield was stronger than ever. Again the Deadelus returned fire, and this time with its Asgard Weaponry. Several blue laces of death lashed out from the ship and struck the first hive, crippling it. Within a minute one hive and two cruisers were either destroyed or about to be destroyed.

"Sir, engineering reports they might have found a way to beam nukes aboard their ships." Meyers reported.

"Tell them not to wait for my command and beam as soon as they have a lock." Caldwell ordered. "As long as they aren't using mark nines we'll be fine."

As the Deadelus made another pass it fired two regular missiles, one was intercepted, but the other one hit a hive's hibernation pod. The explosion, although large did only minor damage. During the same time the missiles hit, the jamming signal was countered and four nukes were simultaneously transported aboard the Wraith and Vanir ships. Two hives, four cruisers and both Vanir ships were consumed by the nuclear fire. Now only one cruiser and a bunch of darts remained.

As the Deadelus came about to finish the fight by destroying the sole remaining cruiser it fled the scene narrowly missing two beams.

"Crap." Caldwell said.

"Sir?"

"Now they know we could crack their jamming tech. nevertheless, send a report to Midway, advise them of the situation and the frequencies of the jamming field and tell them to send through marines to help the planet down below." Caldwell said.

**Gate room, Midway station**

**The same time**

Colonel Lorne approached the commander of Hotel Company, 2nd battalion fifth marines and part of the first marine division. Captain Williams saluted the Colonel as they met in front of the stargate.

"Colonel, What's our mission?" Williams asked.

"One of the planets of the Pegasus Alliance has been attacked. The Deadelus just secure orbit but there are still quite a lot of darts and drones on the ground. This particular planet has a large population, over two hundred thousand, mostly refugees. The Genii are providing internal security but they can't handle the amount of darts and drones." Lorne said.

"Okay sir, so we just secure the planet and go home?"

"You'll secure the planet and provide support for local law enforcement until they can be reorganized or until we recall you." Lorne said.

"What are the possibilities of backup?"

"The rest of the battalion in suiting up and the Deadelus is ready to launch its 302's."

"Okay, dial the gate." Williams said.

Lorne turned around and gave the person in the control room the go signal. The gate started dialing.

Williams turned towards his company which was standing in the large gateroom. "People, we are going to kick some Wraith ass. Expect drones and darts plus a shitload of civvies. The Deadelus has secured orbit and may be sending some 302's our way."

The gate activated and a MALP was sent through. When the technician signaled the all clear for the immediate surroundings of the gate, the company moved through.

**Vedena stargate**

First platoon and Captain Williams were first to exit the gate. They immediately spread out and secured the area around the stargate while the other platoons of H-Company arrived. They were quickly greeted by the local Genii commander, a man by the name of Kalos. The Deadelus was contacted and it was agreed upon to call in the rest of the battalion. Although it would take a while for the rest of the battalion to be ready, H-company got to work quickly. The Deadelus used its transportation systems to beam the units to where they were necessary.

The planet Vedena which was first encountered when Teyla was searching for the missing Athosians; had come a long way from it primitive tents to wooden and in some cases stone buildings. At the time Teyla and Sheppard visited the planet in search of a seer named Davos.

Beside the Wraith forces that were destroying as much from the planet as they could there were also major riots. For the next few weeks the second battalion of the fifth marines would be busy here.

**Janus' formerly hidden lab, Atlantis**

**March 30 **

**0900 hours**

McKay arrived in the hallway where Janus' lab was located. He input the right code and walks through the wall. He was tasked with overseeing Janus' project even though most were out of his league. Fortunately Janus was very patient and always willing to explain everything.

"Doctor McKay, how are you doing? I've gathered a report that you can give to your superiors, I think it will be simple enough for even them to understand."

"Let's hope so, your last report took me four hours to explain, and that was just about the replicator code, something that's relatively simple compared to the Aterro device or the Arcturus project." McKay said.

"So are they going ahead with replicators for ship building and mining?"

"No. they however are willing to compromise and use nanites for mining but they don't want full blown replicators, no matter how many safeties, in existence."

"And the modifications for the Odyssey's phase technology?"

"You have no idea how simple that was. You should have seen their faces when I told them we might find intact ancient warships, stations, ZPM factories and what else without any danger. By far the easiest upgrade I ever got through any counsel." McKay said.

"And the scientists aboard the Odyssey were able to implement the new code by themselves?"

"Eh, no. they want you. They'll swing by the Midway station in about a week, on April fifth. We'll take a group of people with the ATA gene to make things easier. Doctor Jackson also wanted to come along as did General O'Neill. He wanted to get out of the office."

"Very well, I am already looking forward to a trip on one of your battle cruisers. I'll make up a list of what we'll need to take." Janus said.

"You think the Odyssey doesn't have what you'll need?"

"Well, you can never be prepared enough."

**Control room**

**Midway station**

**April 5**

General O'Neill walked into the control room of the midway station to greet Sheppard himself. He found Sheppard in contact with a platoon of marines on a scouting mission one some planet in the Pegasus galaxy.

O'Neill waited for Sheppard to finish the conversation before he walked up to Sheppard.

"Sheppard, where's my ride?"

"The Odyssey is running a little bit late I'm afraid. She had some business to take care off first." Sheppard replied.

"Okay. When will she be here?"

"Bout ten minutes. They did say they installed the subroutines and are waiting for Janus to make the final modifications to the core."

"Okay I'll bring the news."

All people who would join the Odyssey for the trip were already assembled in a large area near the gateroom. Nearly thirty people, of which half in military fatigues all having the ATA gene waited for a beam out, as did a platoon of marines whom had the task of securing any installation they'll find out of phase. With them were also Janus, Daniel Jackson and Cadet Frasier who seemed to be going anywhere Janus was going these days. They all waited patiently for the Odyssey to arrive and beam them out.

General O'Neill walked in and told them that they would have to wait about ten more minutes. They all relaxed as they were expecting a beam out any moment and returned to the seats of the large waiting area. Normally it was used as a staging area for marine units and travelers between galaxies. Therefore it held several hundred seats and enough room for a marine to stash his rucksack and relax before a mission.

Fifteen minutes later Sheppard radioed in telling O'Neill that the Odyssey was ready to beam them up. Less than a minute later O'Neill found himself on the bridge of the Odyssey greeting Colonel Emerson.

**Bridge, Odyssey**

"Colonel, when can we get underway?" O'Neill said as he walked up to the command chair where he shook hands with Emerson.

"In about twenty minutes after we've loaded up on supplies." Emerson said. "In the meantime you should settle in and perhaps Janus can get started on the final modifications to the phase technology. I've arranged my own quarters to be at your disposal."

"Thank you Colonel. Well I'll leave you alone; you have a job to do." O'Neill said.

**Core room**

**Twenty minutes later**

"Mister Janus, how far along are the modifications?" Emerson asked as he walked in.

"Please, call me Janus. I was just about to send McKay to find you; I have completed the modifications to your phase technology and calibrated it to the phase frequency Ancient phase technology uses." Janus answered.

Emerson turned to McKay surprised. "Doctor, I didn't know you were a messenger?" he joked before he turned back to Janus. "Janus, what will the effect be on our hyperdrive field?"

"That is unknown, even though we had the technology it wasn't widely available and usually wasn't necessary for us." Janus replied.

"What would you recommend?"

"We should try it; it might be useful to know."

"Okay, we'll try it. From what I understand Ancient facilities and outposts were built in rings around Atlantis, right? The most important and most densely populated worlds were the closest to Atlantis, as were the most important facilities. Therefore we'll start at the planet Lantea, the planet we first found Atlantis on." Emerson said.

"That is a sound plan Colonel. I understand that this ship will be able to scan quite an area with the ZPM integrated in its systems?"

"Yes, we'll leave in ten minutes, unless any of you have any objections?" Emerson said.

A numbers of 'no's' echoed as Emerson turned to leave the core room and headed for the bridge.

Ten minutes later the Odyssey turned away from the Midway station and disappeared off the sensors. Moments later it entered hyperspace.

**April 6**

**Bridge, Phoenix**

**Near known Lucian Alliance world**

The Phoenix was on patrol near a known Lucian alliance stronghold. Its mission was to monitor the alliance and intervene if necessary. They were also to provide help if necessary for a nearby Colonial task force consisting of two hospital ships, eight freighters with humanitarian supplies and four escorting frigates which were providing aid to a planet that was recently attacked by the Aschen.

Right now Colonel Mitchell, Commander of the Phoenix wished he was back in the field with SG-1. The patrols were boring to say the least. Most commanders were told not to engage the Lucian Alliance head on as they gotten their hands on a device that could destabilize hyperspace. How the SGC didn't know and neither did they know how much of these devices there were in existence but they were deadly as was demonstrated during the Wraith attack on Earth.

Mitchell did really miss the old SG-1. They were all scattered around the galaxy. O'Neill was the Commander of the Space Forces. Carter headed the BB-305 Project and was rumored to be its first commander. Teal'c was back at Dakarra as Vice President of the Free Jaffa Nation. Daniel was at Heliopolis working as an ambassador for the Tau'ri Federation to the Alliance. Vala, well Vala was being her usual annoying, flirty and stealing self to Daniel. And he himself was the commander of a Tau'ri battle cruiser in the Milky Way Galaxy.

It was usually at the long and boring days that he thought back to the many missions he participated in with the famous SG-1, Flagship of Stargate Command. From the moment he joined and had to 'bring the band back together' to the end, just after the Wraith attack on Earth in 2009. By that time Carter was already gone to command the Hammond and Teal'c was already at Dakarra. Soon thereafter Atlantis took over the day to day stargate business including exploration and he was transferred to the Phoenix. Daniel was more than happy to uncover as much as possible about the city of the Ancients and Vala just wanted to see how much she could take and get away with.

Now his oh so boring day was about to get a little bit interesting.

"Sir, we are receiving a hail from the Colonial task force. They are requesting our help. They've had some momentary contacts, which could be written off as DRADIS ghosts but the commander thinks there is one too many." The Tactical officer reported as a message came in.

"Okay, plot a course for their location. How long will it take us to get there?" Mitchell ordered.

"About an hour."

"Okay, wake up the pilots and have them prepare for possible combat." As a former pilot Mitchell knew it was better to wake the pilots up for nothing than to put them in their cockpits without having eaten something or without a shower.

The Phoenix entered hyperspace and its 302 pilots prepared for a 'hot launch', which meant they would launch in the middle of a battle without the time to organize the squadron.

An hour later the Phoenix exited hyperspace not too far away from the Colonial task force. The two hospital ships were in orbit of the planet and shuttles and Raptors were shuttling wounded up to the ships. Two freighters were also waiting in orbit, four more were already on the ground and two others were being guided in by a pair of raptors. The hospital ships were painted white to distinguish them from a normal colonial fleet ships. Most colonial hospital ships were old converted battlestars or smaller classes of warships. Most of their weaponry was removed though some remained for defense against pirates. The four escorting frigates had placed themselves around the other ships in a box formation. Their main role in combat was to intercept fighters and bombers and to allow the battlestars to focus on taking out the enemy capital ships.

The Phoenix slowly made its way over to the Colonial ships in orbit while running a low level sensor scan of the system.

"Sir, we're picking up something strange, its right behind us and following us." The Tactical officer said.

"Alright, I want you to get everyone to their station but do not power up any weapon system." Mitchell ordered. As the Tactical officer executed the order he thought the situation through. Without knowing who was following them he could not just open fire, though it was fair to assume it was a Lucian alliance scout ship. As more crewmembers entered the bridge, and other compartments reported ready he came to a dangerous conclusion.

"Okay, I want you to take a heading away from the fleet and planet, speed up until we reach max speed."

The Tactical officer complied. "The signal is still following us, it is close behind us."

"On my command I want you to slam her in full reverse, set the shields to maximum, power the weapons and increase power to the sensors to the maximum."

"Sir, if that is a ship it might crash into us."

"Exactly, they'll have to make a choice, slam into our shields or drop the cloak and take evasive maneuvers revealing their identity to us. If it's the Lucian alliance, which is most likely it'll just be a cloaked scout ship, an Al'Kesh at worst, our shields can handle that." Mitchell explained.

"Yes sir." The Tactical officer said. "Ready."

Mitchell waited for a second thinking his plan over one last time, looking for that one crucial thing he might have missed, and found none. "Execute."

The Tactical officer executed the plan.

The Phoenix, which was at top speed, suddenly decelerated, powered shields to maximum, which was visible by the blue force field becoming visible for a short time. Its weapons were powered and the ship came to a dead halt before it started moving backwards.

"Contact is still closing! Four thousand meters, three thousand meters." The Tactical officer said as she read the distance to the signal. Mitchell began to doubt he made the right decision; no-one in their right mind would want to go head to head with an Asgard engineered shield, though the Lucian alliance had showed some really worrying lack of intelligence. "Fifteen hundred, we are getting a clear picture, they're de-cloaking. It's a Lucian Alliance scout ship. Their evading, shall I alter course for an intercept course?"

"Do it, use a railgun to disable their engines." Mitchell said. "Be careful, disable, and not destroy."

The Phoenix came about as the scout ship soared past it. One railgun cannon started tracking the small ship as it tried to get away. Once the computer received a clean lock on the scout ship's engines it fired a burst of three rounds into the engines, completely wrecking the sub light and hyperdrive engines but not damaging the rest of the ship.

"Target disabled."

"Beam over a squad of marines, tell them to secure the ship with as little force as possible, inform the colonials on our actions."

"Yes sir."

After the marines were beamed over the bridge crew waited several minutes before the marines called back.

"_Sir, we've detained four and killed six, we need an immediate beam out, during a firefight we shot up some panels and now there are warning lights going off all over the cockpit."_

"Beam them out." Mitchell ordered.

The marines and their four prisoners appeared on the bridge. Moments later the cargo ship's hull buckled and collapsed in on itself before exploding.

"Sergeant, put those four in the brig and have medical and intelligence check them out." Mitchell ordered. "Set course back to the Colonial task force."

The Phoenix turned around and moved towards the Colonial fleet while powering the shield down to normal levels.

"_Colonel Mitchell, this is Engineering, please come in."_

"Mitchell here, what is it?"

"_Sir, I've been going over the sensors from the fight and I think the scout ship sent a message before we boarded it."_

"Were you able to decipher it?"

"_No sir, but we tracked it back towards that Lucian Alliance stronghold we were observing."_

"Okay, well done, Mitchell out." Mitchell said. "Tactical I want you to keep an eye out for any new contacts and tell the Colonials to be ready for a possible attack. Have the fighters on standby for the next four hours. Also send a message to Earth informing them about our actions and that we have four POW's."

**Two hours later**

**Bridge, TFS Odyssey**

**Nearing original System of Atlantis**

In just a few minutes the Odyssey would drop out of hyperspace on the edge of the Lantea System to make its first scan. Due to the ZPM the sensors were able to cover quite a large area. Though for them to scan the entire galaxy, they would need several hundred scans. Up until now the phase technology had worked perfectly. They had encountered a few bumps while in hyperspace though that was not something uncommon in hyperspace.

"_Colonel Emerson, we are nearing our first scan point." _Janus advised the Colonel from the core room.

"Yes I'm aware of that Janus, thank you. We'll be dropping out of hyperdrive in one minute."

Fifty seconds later Major Gant started counting the seconds down until reversion to normal space. Ten seconds later they exited hyperspace. In front of them lay the blue planet Lantea with its continent that previously held the Athosian settlement.

"Janus, we have exited hyperspace. You may commence scanning."

Ten minutes later the scan was done.

"_Colonel Emerson, I have compiled a list of possible hits. We won't know for sure it's a mark until we check them out ourselves. The nearest one is four minutes away by hyperspace." _Janus reported.

"Very well. XO set course for the nearest hit."

The Odyssey entered hyperspace again for the nearest hit and four minutes later it again exited hyperspace. They were greeted by two craft, just a little bit bigger than a jumper adrift in space.

"Bingo." Emerson said. "Janus, what kind of craft are those two?"

"_They seem to be bombers used by Admiral Hippaforalkus; he was the one in charge of all Lantean special operations. I am not reading life signs; I don't think the crew had a stasis pod installed. At any rate they should prove useful. I suggest sending four people to each ship, of which half have the ATA gene."_

"Copy that Janus. We'll have a team ready in a minute."

"_Emerson, This is O'Neill, I and Cadet Frasier are ready to be beamed over."_

"Eh sir, I know you outrank me and all but we can't risk losing you, you're too important for Earth."

"_Colonel, Janus has already established that there are no life signs, and that there is no danger worth mentioning. I'm sure he would have said something if there was any danger. So beam me and Cadet Frasier over to the nearest bomber and we'll see what we can do with it." O'Neill ordered._

"Yes sir." He ordered his XO to beam the general and cadet to one ship along with two scientists and four other scientists to the other bomber.

Within minutes the two teams had radioed back reporting that the bombers were fine and could be brought back aboard the ship, which happened ten minutes later. After that the Odyssey set course for the next coordinates.

**TFS Phoenix**

**One hour later**

While the Phoenix waited for any signal from the Lucian alliance it remained in orbit over the planet. Meanwhile the beaming systems were put to a good use and transported relief aid from the ships to where it was needed. They also beamed the most critical wounded civilians to the hospital ships.

"Sir, I think we have a contact." The XO reported.

"You think?"

"It's just like the scout ship, though it is a bit larger, perhaps an Al'kesh."

"Battle stations, relay the telemetry to the Colonials and copy them on our movements. Prepare to launch F-302's."

The Phoenix powered its weapons and increased shield power to maximum.

"Sir, hyperspace windows opening." The XO reported

"How much ships?" Mitchell asked.

"At least four, they are Ha'tak sized." The XO replied.

"Come about to face them head on. Lock all weapons on the nearest target. Hail them."

As the Phoenix faces the four Ha'tak which are in a V shaped formation, their hail is answered. _"This is J'tel of the Lucian Alliance, you fired upon one of our vessels, stand down and surrender your vessels."_

"Uh, no. The way I see it you've got, two, no three choices here. One you get back into hyperspace to wherever you come from. Two you decide to stay and we fight a bit before you either surrender or retreat. Or three and this is my personal favorite, you stay and fight, we kick your ass up one side of this system and down the other and completely destroy you. Make your choice, I don't have all day." Mitchell replied with a hint of mockery. He turned to his XO and ordered the 302's launched.

Just as the first 302 exits the hanger bay an orange bolt flies their way. It harmlessly impacts the forward shields. More orange colored plasma is fired upon the Earth craft before it returns fire.

"The enemy has upgraded their shields sir; they are nearly as powerful as an upgraded Free Jaffa Ha'tak." The XO reported from the first salvo, which strangely didn't result in the destruction of the targeted ship.

"Well, it seems they finally got their hands on those new designs. I'm surprised it took them so long, the Free Jaffa Nation isn't exactly known for its internal security."

"What do you want me to do sir?" the XO asked.

"Keep firing, those shields are still inferior to ours." Mitchell said.

"But not to those of the Colonials." An officer said.

"Crap. What is their status? Are they jumping out?"

"No sir, the civvies are retreating at sub light speed and the escorts are covering them."

"Are their jump drives being jammed?"

"I can't tell there is a lot of interference from the Lucian Alliance ships."

"Keep firing, concentrate on taking out those Ha'tak's, the Colonials can defend themselves from the Al'kesh and gliders that get through." Mitchell ordered.

As the Phoenix continued its fire on the four Ha'tak twelve gliders made it through the defense screen consisting out of F-302's and missiles and Railguns from the Phoenix. They fired at the Phoenix' shields and did nothing. Meanwhile one Ha'tak was destroyed and another was attempting to retreat.

"Commander, Six Al'Kesh have exited hyperspace near the colonial ships, they are opening fire." The XO reported.

The six Al'kesh exited hyperspace in the middle of the Colonial Flak barrier. Already one Al'Kesh was destroyed before its shields activated and was shredded by numerous Flak hits. The other five Al'kesh continued to close in on the Colonial Frigates, which had turned around to shield the unprotected ships. The shields of each frigate were about as strong as that of a normal Ha'tak. The Al'Kesh might have had a weaker shield, it was designed to attack and destroy Ha'tak class vessels.

The battle between the Al'Kesh and Frigates quickly turned into a cat and mouse game between the Flak Barriers and the Al'Kesh. The Al'Kesh would make quick attacks on the Frigates which did everything in their power to turn their batteries and establish a Flak barrier between them and the Al'kesh. Ultimately all the Al'Kesh were destroyed, but not before half the Frigates were destroyed. Their crews however were mostly evacuated, their evacuation ships picked up by the hospital ships and the two remaining frigates.

The last remaining two Ha'tak were quickly destroyed by the Phoenix and its fighters. After the Death gliders were destroyed the fighters joined in on the fight between their mother ship and the Ha'tak's. As the Phoenix took down the shields, the 302's took care of the now unshielded Ha'tak's and they disappeared into two bright flashes created by mark seven nuclear missiles, ending the battle.

**April 14**

**Bridge, TFS Odyssey**

**Out of phase, somewhere in the Pegasus Galaxy**

The Odyssey's journey had been quite successful. Along with a dozen other bomber like craft they had discovered several cargo ships. Two were carrying spare parts for about any type of technology, one carried two dozen jumpers and about a thousand drones while the fourth carried clothes and food, which had turned bad ten thousand years ago. They had also discovered one Aurora and two smaller cruisers and one science vessel. All these were sent back towards Midway station for repair and examination. So far they had not found any living Ancients, though they now had a good lead to a secret facility which had phase and time dilation capabilities, which were the same as the ZPM factory Janus hid in the Milky Way galaxy.

"Sir, we are approaching the station, dropping out of hyperspace in thirty seconds." Major Gant reported.

"Okay, standard procedure, have Janus and a boarding team on standby, we never know what we might find." Emerson ordered.

"Colonel, I hope I am not bothering you?" Janus said as he entered the bridge.

"Of course not, I assume you want to see this for yourself?"

"Yes, I have never heard about this station, I couldn't find any trace on any system used by us. I want to know what the high council found so important to not include it into the database of Atlantis."

"So do I." O'Neill said as he too entered the bridge. "Good Morning Colonel."

"General, Good Morning to you too sir. You want the chair?" Emerson asked as he was ready to get out of the chair.

"No thank you, I try my best to stay out of them, I have an old back injury you know."

As Janus and O'Neill stayed to the side of the bridge the Odyssey exited hyperspace. Within moments they detected a large station, and seconds later the ship was rocked by impacts.

"What the hell is going on?" Emerson yelled to his staff.

"We are under attack by the station itself, drones and energy weapons. With this rate of fire we'll only last two minutes." Grant reported after a few seconds.

"Janus, Do you have any idea what to do about this?" Emerson asked.

Janus and O'Neill, whom were trying to stay upright because of the constant impacts on the shields tried to secure themselves a stable position. "Eh, I need an open line to that station." Janus said.

"Major, get on it." Emerson ordered his XO.

Within seconds the Major had established a channel to the station and stood up to allow Janus to sit down and have access to the console. Janus entered a series of codes and talked in Ancient which nobody could really follow. Daniel was summoned to translate but he was in the core room doing some studying on some recovered data.

Within seconds a hologram appeared on the bridge. The person was a middle aged woman wearing Lantean clothes. She started talking and the ships on board translation system translated it.

"_I am Commander Helios of the Lantean Council. This is a restricted area. Who are you and how did you locate this station?"_ the hologram said.

"Well miss, now you ask, we received directions a few light-years away, this old dude told us to take a left turn…" Jack started before he was interrupted by Janus

"Jack."

"What!" Jack shot back, all the while the ship was still rocking under the constant bombardment.

"She can't hear you." Janus got out of the seat to allow Grant to get back in. "Open a holographic response." Janus said as he stepped up to the center of the bridge. After a few seconds Grant gave the go ahead.

"Commander Helios, I am Janus, I am just as you, one of the few survivors of our race, please cease fire before permanent damage is done."

"_Janus, I remember that name. You were that scientist that damaged the time line, I should have you shot for collaborating with these people, and what do you mean by we are two of the few survivors of our race?"_ Commander Helios asked.

"That is me. Our race is finished; these are our children, the second evolution, from Earth. We lost the war against the Wraith, our plans to rebuild in Avalonia failed, our race, with a few exceptions died out."

The woman's face showed shock at the news and moments later the weapons fire ceased.

"_Then what are you doing here?"_ Helios asked.

"The humans from Earth have come to power earlier then we predicted. Nevertheless, they found Atlantis, woke the Wraith and are ever since fighting them. Our friends from the Ida galaxy, the Asgard met this race and trust them enough to give them all their technology. They later encountered Myrddin from whom they acquired the phase shifting technology. Not so long ago the humans from Earth discovered the station I had used as a base and revived me. Because of the time travels I already knew that they would emerge to power and combat the Wraith, what I saw after that however made me realize that if we want our form to keep existing I needed to interfere. Part of that is to find technology as much as possible we left behind. Because the Wraith practically turned every stone in this galaxy searching for and destroying our technology I knew there was only one place where technology might be left."

"_And your search led you here."_ Helios said.

"Yes, the Wraith have never found out about the phase technology, so all the ships we left behind out of phase have not been found by the Wraith." Janus said.

"_I suggest you and a delegation from your ship come aboard so we can discuss this further._" Helios said.

"That is fine by me. We will come aboard by a recovered puddle jumper with phase technology." O'Neill said.

Commander Helios looked at the general who now stood next to Janus and didn't understand him

"My friend here means our regular gate capable transport craft. They named quite a few things in our absence." Janus explained.

"_I see." _Helios said before they were disconnected.

Ten minutes later Janus, O'Neill, Daniel Jackson and Cadet Frasier headed to the Lantean station ahead of them in a phased puddle jumper. They entered the jumper bay and found that it looked very much like the jumper bay on Atlantis. As the roof door closed several people wearing ancient clothes and ancient weapons entered the bay to greet them.

After the introductions the group headed down a stair into what seemed to be the control room, again like Atlantis. This time however, instead of a stargate there were four chairs with numerous terminals around them. They were led into the conference room, which too did look like the one on Atlantis the first time they found it. The doors closed and for the next three hours Commander Helios was informed about the demise of the Lantean domain, the rise of the Tau'ri and the current situation.

When the meeting was finished the group returned to the Odyssey with the specs of the station. Janus had been able to convince commander Helios to join the fight and help the Tau'ri. Therefore the Odyssey would tow the station to the Midway station, where its formidable weaponry and sensor systems would be of great use for further operations in the Pegasus galaxy. The station used to have its own hyperdrive systems but due to wear and tear the system was unreliable to say the least. The Odyssey would use its ZPM to extend a hyperspace field around the station. The Odyssey would receive an extra ZPM, just in case it was necessary from the station.

The station was impressive; it was able to create nearly anything it wanted. It got the resources necessary from alternate realities, the system was quite save but had the drawback of requiring huge amounts of power for just a very small amount of resources. Therefore creating something like say an Aurora would require several fully charged ZPM's, which was just impossible. The station did have the capacity to make ZPM's but was too far away from a sun to make a lot of them.

Ten minutes after the group had made it back towards the Odyssey the ship and the station lined up, ready for hyperspace.

"Major, integrate the ZPM directly into the hyperdrive. When that's done you may proceed to engage the hyperdrive and set a course for the Midway station towing the station along with us." Emerson ordered.

"Yes sir." Major Gant replied.

It only took a minute for Major Gant to complete the power transfers and engage the hyperdrive.

The hyperdrive engaged and propelled the Odyssey and the station into hyperspace on their way towards the Midway station.

As the ship entered hyperspace it started shaking mildly.

"Colonel?" O'Neill asked.

"Major?" Emerson referred the question to her, also interested to know what was happening.

"It seems to be some kind of turbulence, no doubt because of the station we are towing. It must be putting an enormous strain on the system."

"Okay keep an eye on it and report back to me when it gets worse." Emerson said.

**April 18**

**Near the Midway station**

During the last four days the trembling had gradually become worse but not to such an extent that it was too much.

"Sir, we'll reach the Midway station within several minutes, I suggest we slow down, the station we are towing has limited sub light engines for deceleration and we should not strain them too much." Gant suggested.

"Do it." Emerson ordered.

The shaking became less and less as the Odyssey slowed down. Suddenly the ship shook violently several alarms started blaring.

"Major report!" Emerson ordered as he tried to stay in his chair.

"There is a power surge in the hyperdrive system; we can't dump it in time. We need to unhook the station; otherwise it'll be destroyed by the sudden acceleration. They will probably drift out of hyperspace close enough to the Midway station."

"Do it major."

"And sir, it's gonna get bumpy."

Emerson switched a switch in the arm of his chair. "Be aware we're gonna have a bumpy ride for a while."

Moments after the station was disconnected the Odyssey surged ahead, faster than any hyperdrive system had ever gone, faster than the Odyssey should have been able to handle.

**TBC**


	4. new friends, new foes

**AN: well, it's been a while; fortunately I've graduated and am enjoying my summer break. Thanks to Rudy Pena for the beta and I'm pretty sure some of you will love this chapter and some of you will hate it, but that's up to you.**

**So without further delay, Chapter 4, enjoy and leave a comment if you feel like it.**

**Bridge, Odyssey**

**Location: Unknown**

**Time: Unknown**

As Colonel Emerson regained consciousness and opened his eyes, the first thing he saw was grey deck plating. As usual the commander was thrown out of his chair when the Odyssey surged forward and suddenly decelerated uncontrollably. His first thought was to complain about his chair once he got back to Earth, sure the chair was comfortable, very functional and great to take a nap in while on watch but the lack of a seatbelt was a real big minus.

As he tried to get up he heard some of the crew waking up as well. There were some cries for help and some footsteps as people tried to get back to their stations.

Emerson felt someone put a hand on his shoulder; it turned out to be Major Gant. "Sir, Are you alright?"

"Yeah, yeah I'll be fine, help me up please."

Gant helped him up and he retook his place in his chair. "What's our status?"

Gant retook her station and brought up a diagnostics screen. "We've got some damage, the ZPM seems to be offline, and I can't reach engineering, the 302-bay or the sickbay. We've got no propulsion, no shields and sensors are limited to short range."

"Okay, send messengers to the sickbay, 302-bay and engineering, we need to get communications on-line. Does anyone have an idea what happened?"

"As soon as the core gets back on-line I'll take a look at it personally." Gant replied.

"Very well."

The lights flickered as some systems came back online increasing the drain on the power supply.

After several minutes communications was reestablished.

"_Colonel Emerson, this is McKay in the core room."_

"Go ahead Doctor."

"_Janus has some intel with regards to our position, he will transfer it to the bridge as soon as he can."_

"Copy that." He looked to his side where Gant opened the intel and nodded. "We've received the data, please hold one." He again looked to Major Gant and saw she was frozen up. "Major, How bad is it?"

"Bad." Was the only thing she could say?

"I already got that but how bad? Did we overshoot Midway by a few light-years?"

"Worse." Gant replied still unable to say much more.

"What, the other side of the Milky way galaxy?"

Finally able to reply properly "Try another galactic cluster."

Colonel Emerson and several people who were in the vicinity looked up shocked.

"How… how…" was all Emerson managed to say?

"With the ZPM tied in and the hyperdrive functioning at peak efficiency it would take approximately one and a half year to return to our own galactic cluster, another four months before we are even able to send a message to the Asgard, whom are closer, and about another six months before we reach Asgard controlled space." Gant read from the screen which was returning calculations.

"We're screwed." Nearby airmen said.

"So it seems." Janus said as he walked in. "We've depleted the tied in ZPM, and although the spare ZPM will be able to take over its duty the hyperdrive is damaged and won't get anywhere near peak efficiency anytime soon."

"Any good news?" Emerson asked.

"We've got enough coffee to last three years." McKay quipped in.

"But our food supplies are only limited to fourteen months, unless we all want to start sucking lemons." Emerson said.

"Oh very funny, so we'll probably die of malnutrition instead of bashing each other's brains out for a lack of caffeine." McKay said.

"Relax McKay; I'm surprised you and Sheppard managed to get along so long without killing each other." Emerson said. "Anyway back to the topic, how long will it take before we can start heading back home?"

"It'll be about two more days before the hyperdrive has been repaired, the same goes for the sensors, right now the sensors can't even scan beyond half our maximum weapons range." Gant reported.

"So we could have a hostile ship on top of us and we wouldn't even know it." Emerson stated.

"Well we should launch a few 302's to act as a sensor screen; it will provide us with an early warning system." O'Neill proposed.

"Agreed." Emerson said with a nod to major Gant to execute the order.

As Major Gant relayed the orders to the 302 bay her console beeped. "Sir, we've got contacts, twelve smaller ships and one capital ship."

"Put them on screen. What's our tactical situation?" Emerson asked.

"We've got no shields, most of our weapons are offline and propulsion is minimal." Gant reported. "Sensors are getting an accurate fix on the incoming ships."

The screen changed to an enhanced view of the incoming ships. The large ship was oval and white, and easily several times larger than a 304. The fighters were small and dart shaped.

"Can we open a channel?" Emerson asked.

"We can try, sir." Gant replied as she started working on her console. After a minute she opened a channel.

"Alien vessel, This is the Tau'ri Federation Ship Odyssey, we have been sent far away from our home world by accident, and we are currently attempting to restore our faster than light propulsion systems. If we have trespassed into your territory we apologize, we will do our best to leave it as soon as we can." Emerson said.

After a minute of waiting and getting no response O'Neill was getting restless. "Are we getting any response? Anything? Are they powering weapons or shields?"

"We can't determine if their shields are active, the same goes for the weapons." Gant reported.

"_Tau'ri Federation Ship Odyssey, you have trespassed onto our territory, but that is not why we came here. Our scans on your ship inform us that you have possession of extremely strong weapons, and as a matter of fact we need them." _The person on the other side said.

"I wish we could help you with that, but we don't just share our technology that easily, and we'd rather destroy our own ship than allow it to fall into enemy hands." Emerson said.

"_Then let us convince you that we deserve your help in our war for survival, please, let's join each other in conversation, either onboard my ship or onboard yours."_

"I guess we can have a conversation, it's the least we can do. May I ask what your name is?" Emerson asked.

"_My name is Tomin, commander of the Ori forces in the fourth district."_

"Well Tomin, my name is Colonel Paul Emerson, you are welcome to come aboard my ship, and our transport capabilities are limited due to damage. You can use a shuttle and land in one of our landing bays. We'll be looking forward to your arrival."

"_Very well, I will be there shortly."_ The connection was terminated.

"So what was your impression?" Emerson asked O'Neill.

I think we need to be careful, he has already admitted to wanting our technology and we know from experience how those kinds of people can be." O'Neill said.

"Janus, have you found anything like the Ori in your time travels?" McKay asked.

"No, but I remember from my schooling that Ori is another word for religious zealot in a very old and rare dialect, it stems from our earliest beginnings, from before the construction of Atlantis, and our arrival in the Milky Way galaxy."

"Then that is something we need to be careful about." Emerson said. "Cadet Frasier, Would you care to set up the conference room?"

"Yes sir." Frasier said before she took off.

Ten minutes later Tomin, Emerson, O'Neill, Jackson, Frasier and Janus were seated in the conference room.

"Commander Tomin, Welcome aboard the Odyssey. You said you needed our help, would you care to explain?" O'Neill asked.

"Very well. Over ten years ago our forces detected an incursion of hundreds of ships. We sent a formidable fleet to investigate and to make contact. Upon making contact we were fired upon indiscriminately. As we returned fire we encountered much resistance. We lost nearly half our ships that were present. Afterwards we have fought many battles and for quite some time it was a more or less equal fight. But after several years of intense fighting our enemy introduced a new ship, these weren't just warships, they carried their entire race. We have never been able to damage, let alone destroy any. These ships are rare but massive. Eventually our capital planet of Celestis was destroyed, our leaders, guides, the almighty Ori were destroyed by a powerful weapon. With the loss of Celestis we also lost the Doci who had the ability to create new Priors, the ones whom control our ships' weapon systems. Ever since we have not been able to replace our losses and although we have many ships, we do not have the ability to use them in combat."

"And where do we come in?" Jackson asked.

"We cannot create new technologies; we can only build what the Ori provided us with. If you were to help us, we could build ships that are controllable by normal warriors. It would give us a means to fight back." Tomin said.

"What is it exactly that prevents you from using the technology provided to you?" Frasier asked.

"I do not know, the priors say it has something to do with the transformation process they go through, it changes them."

"Might it be possible for us to examine such a prior? Perhaps we can find out how they were changed." Jackson said.

"I am sure that could be arranged, there is a prior present on my ship right now. My pilot can bring someone over to examine the prior." Tomin agreed.

"Okay, I'm sure we can send some med techs over, Cadet Frasier if I'm not mistaken you also have a degree in medicine, right?" O'Neill asked.

"Yes sir, Medicine and astrophysics, as well as several other subjects that are related to the benefits from stargate command."

"Okay, take two techs from the sick bay and an escort and get over to that ship and see what is so different about that prior." O'Neill ordered.

Frasier saluted and left the conference room.

While Frasier was testing the prior, Tomin and the rest were exchanging each other's history and delved into the somewhat troubling history of the Ori. It was discovered that the Ori were in fact ascended ancients, but in contrary to the Alterans they were religious based instead of scientifically. It was also discovered that the Alterans and Ori were once brothers until the differences became too great and to avoid a devastating war, the Alterans left. A great help for discovering the history was the book of origin, the Ori's version of the bible, though some things were biased by the anger of the Ori with regards to the Alterans.

Furthermore Tomin elaborated on their war with the enemy they called the Dominion, seven feet tall green humanoids with implants that seemed to be thousands, if not millions of years old. Some ships that had been destroyed by Ori ships were dated to be over a million years old, still in design and technology the same as the newer ships. The Ori were usually able to win a battle if they had overwhelming numbers. The Ori were able to destroy ten times as much ships as they destroyed, but it was no good, the enemy seemed to have an unlimited supply of ships and soldiers, which made the assumption of their age all the more reasonable.

The origin of the Dominion was difficult to determine. It was however clear that they were from beyond the Ori galaxy. Since the arrival of the Dominion several scout parties had discovered that neighboring galaxies were barren, destroyed by Dominion fleets. At times a planet was found to be completely striped of its resources and left for dead. So far every galaxy encountered by the Ori was destroyed, void of life which at some point probably existed. In one other galaxy they had found the Dominion at work, finishing off the remaining local forces left after a long and brutal war that were shown no mercy and destroyed to the last man.

After nearly two hours of discussing Frasier called back to the Odyssey from the Ori warship with news.

"Cadet Frasier, what did you found out?" O'Neill asked.

"_Ehm, well the priors seem to be related to the ancients. I found out that their technology is also activated by a slightly altered version of the ATA gene."_

"We just found out about that. So why is it that their 'normal' people don't have the ATA gene?" Emerson asked.

"If I understood Tomin's explanation of the Ori correctly, this is because the Ori just like the ancients ascended and their second evolution started anew. However the difference is that in the Milky Way galaxy the ancients returned from the Pegasus galaxy after the Wraith war and mixed with the second evolution and thereby reintroduced the ATA gene. The Ori on the other hand wanted to keep their people simply as worshippers and prevented them from advancing genetically." Janus said.

"Do you have a way to introduce this ATA gene to my people?" Tomin asked.

"Yes, we've got quite a few people who have had the gene therapy and are now able to operate ancient technology with moderate efficiency." McKay said.

"What exactly do you mean by moderate efficiency?" Tomin asked.

"Well, as an example, Cadet Frasier has a much higher ATA gene level because she has it naturally and therefore is much better in operating ancient technologies then Corporal Sanders whom had the ATA gene therapy three months ago and still has trouble taking off with a jumper without crashing into the aft bulkheads." Jackson said.

"_Sir, one thing to add, this prior's ATA level is lower than that of me or General Sheppard, I guess this has something to do with the conversion to a prior from a normal follower."_

"Okay, that seems logical but nevertheless, from what I hear with enough training normal followers can be enable to operate an Ori warship, perhaps in pairs or larger groups." Janus said.

"Well, I hope we can quickly start introducing the ATA gene to your people Tomin, I think it would be a great help to your war effort." Emerson said.

"That it would most certainly be…" Tomin started, though he couldn't finish because the alarms started blaring.

A screen to the side of the room changed to that of Major Gant. _"Sir, the Ori vessel has raised shields and powered weapons, so far they haven't locked weapons at us."_

"I'm on my way to the bridge." Emerson said to the Major. He turned to Tomin "Would you care to explain?"

"Unless your people aboard my ship did something stupid I think the dominion ships are in the vicinity, there probably is a Ori fleet nearby chasing them but they may not intercept in time."

"Crap." O'Neill summarized the situation. Everyone quickly followed Colonel Emerson towards the bridge.

**Bridge**

As Emerson took his seat he requested a status report.

"Sir, Asgard weapon banks 1, 2, 3 and 6 are off-line, most of the railguns and missile launchers are ready and both hanger bays are combat ready. Shields are at thirty percent and the ZPM will be tied in any minute which will boost the shields immensely. The sub light engines are fifty percent operational but the hyperdrive is still days away from being operational. Sensors are still limited, though are now able to scan up to a little more that our effective weapons range." Gant reported.

"Send a request to the Ori warship for real time sensor telemetry." Emerson said.

"Are we even sure it's a Dominion attack?" Jackson asked.

"What else can it be? Just as Tomin said, they're either mad at us or the Dominion are coming, either way, we need to fight." O'Neill said.

"How about the phase shifting device, is it operational?" Janus asked.

"We don't know yet, we need to activate it to even see if something is wrong, and for that we need the ZPM." Gant said. "We are getting a life feed from the Ori Warship."

"What are they seeing?" Emerson asked.

"Fourteen bogeys, translated the Ori designations are eight destroyers, two light cruisers and two heavy cruisers, which is not counting several squadrons worth of fighters and bombers. Their ETA is about three minutes." Gant reported as the screen showed the composition and formation of the hostile fleet.

"Alright, sound general quarters, launches all fighters, jumpers and how many ancient bombers do we have aboard?" Emerson asked.

"Three sir, the rest was offloaded and sent to the midway station with the rest of the ships."

"Man them and launch them as well, but tell them to use their phase shifting abilities to circle around the fleet and attack them from the rear as soon as the dominion has engaged us." Emerson ordered.

The sixteen F-302's launched from their bays and were quickly joined by cloaking jumpers and Ori fighters and bombers. Even so they were outnumbered three to one.

"Alright, let's see what our weapons can do. Major, task railguns for anti fighter duty if our fighter screen is inadequate, for now missiles are to be used for mark five tactical warheads and the Asgard beams are to target the cruisers first." Emerson said.

The Dominion fighters which formed an advanced assault were surprised by the new vessel and its fighters though they still moved aggressively. Their aggressiveness formed the downfall for nearly a third of the formation as F-302 fired anti dart missiles streaked away from the 302's and into the Dominion fighter formations where they wrecked havoc, something they were designed for. The Dominion had not expected such a devastating weapon from such a primitive ship. They halted their advance and regrouped.

On the bridge everyone was in joy by their early victory, though McKay was silent as he stared at the Dominion fighters.

"McKay, what's wrong?" O'Neill asked.

"I've seen those fighters before. Once when Atlantis was back in the Pegasus Galaxy we encountered an alternate reality Deadelus, it traveled through realities, and in one of those we encountered a ship, that looked like those destroyers which bombarded the Atlantis of that reality. We engaged them and damaged their weaponry though we did not detect any shields; they were probably turned off or inoperable."

"So in an alternate reality this Dominion already invaded the Pegasus Galaxy." O'Neill concluded.

"So it seems." Tomin said.

"The first cruiser is entering weapons range, firing Asgard weaponry." Gant said.

The Odyssey fired two simultaneous beams, followed by two others. The target was a heavy cruiser, one of the strongest in the Dominion fleet. The heavy cruiser was hit head on by all four beams. Its shields flared brightly in order to repel the destructive force behind the beams, eventually the shields held and soon enough the cruiser returned fire. Most of the fire was directed at the Odyssey while the Ori ship only took minimal fire. The Odyssey again fired its plasma beams and this time also launched several mark fives. The Ori warship also joined in with its massive cannon and several secondary batteries. The heavy cruiser's shields could only hold out for a minute or so against such kind of firepower and was destroyed as the nukes detonated against the shields while one nuke made it past the shields and destroyed a large part of the forward sections. The rest went up as the core exploded.

While the heavy cruiser was destroyed the rest of the Dominion ships closed in and opened fire. More bombers were launched after the destruction of one cruiser so quickly. Meanwhile the fighters were engaged in lethal dogfights with the Dominion fighters. The green ships which only had one plasma cannon on the front were not used to the advanced tactics of the F-302 pilots, most of which were veterans of Earth wars such as Iraq and Afghanistan and the Wraith war.

As four destroyers now formed a screen in front of the sole remaining heavy cruiser the other four destroyers tried to flank the Odyssey and Ori warship over the left flank, while the two light cruisers tried to go to the right flank. That was the moment the three Ancient bombers phased back into existence and let loose with a mix of drones and energy weapons. Two destroyers were destroyed right there, their shields penetrated and with critical damage to their power generation.

The Odyssey did not fare much better, although the ZPM was tied in the shields had taken quite a beating and just couldn't take all the punishment, especially not now that the energy had to be directed to three sides instead of one. As an attempt to protect the Odyssey the Ori warship moved in the path of the heavy cruiser's weapons fire, taking an awful amount of fire which would destroy the ship in minutes.

On the bridge things did not look much better; several consoles had already exploded filling the bridge with smoke and reports were coming in from all over the ship about fires and micro fractures in the hull.

"Sir, we need to end this fight or retreat, our shields can't take much more of this." Gant said.

"Load two mark nines and load them with a proximity fuse, target the heavy cruiser and its screen, fire when ready." Emerson ordered.

It only took seconds for the computerized system to input the correct target data and load the mark nine warheads, when the entire process was done the two missiles left their tubes.

"Send a warning to all our fighters." Emerson ordered.

"_Odyssey to all fighters, heavy ordnance fired, watch out."_ The message had to be cryptic so as not to give the enemy too much information in case their signal was being listened into. For the Tau'ri fighters 'heavy ordnance' was more than enough of a warning and they immediately went out of the way, the Ori pilots didn't really understand it, but seeing as the Tau'ri pilots were running away fast, they just followed.

The enemy was not dumb, when they noticed all fighters moving off alarm bells started ringing, when two very fast moving targets were discovered they knew what was going to happen. All available weapons were redirected to target the incoming missiles. One of the missiles was destroyed halfway through. The other remaining missile followed an evasive course and successfully reached the targeted area. The blast destroyed all fighters unfortunate enough to be nearby, the destroyer screen was obliterated and most of the heavy cruiser was destroyed, what remained of the ship was lifeless as the radiation surge destroyed any kind of live aboard. Unfortunately two Ori and one Tau'ri fighter were also to close to escape and were also destroyed.

"Ori warship's shields are nearing critical!" Gant reported. Soon thereafter the shields completely failed and energy struck the hull. Chunks were blown off and sections were vented into space.

"Can we beam people off?" Emerson asked.

"Asgard transport systems are still not responding." Gant replied. "They are launching additional craft, probably transports."

"Launch up four more mark nines, I want those cruisers and destroyers gone." Emerson said.

"No can do sir, they have closed in to the safe distance, we'll be hit as well and with the current state of our shields we won't survive." Gant replied.

"Then load up mark fives and use the railguns offensively." Emerson said.

The Odyssey was a sitting duck, with shields nearing zero percent strength and sub light engines once again inoperable the ship desperately tried to do the Dominion ships crippling damage. More and more weapons fire bypassed the shields and struck the hull, the Odyssey had about a minute left before it would be a lifeless hunk of scrap metal floating in space.

To make matters worse nearly a dozen new hyperspace windows opened not far away and judging by the size of the windows, the ships coming through would be big.

"Shields are failing!" Gant yelled over the noise and rumbling of the many weapons impacts. "More ships are exiting hyperspace!"

"Dominion ships?" Emerson asked.

"Ori" Tomin said as the first of twelve mother ships exited hyperspace and started firing at the now quickly outnumbered cruisers and destroyers.

"We are receiving a hail from the lead ship." Gant reported, she put the hail on the main screen.

"_Commander Tomin, it is a pleasure to see you alive and well."_ An old man with a scarred face said.

"Prior Damaris, I thank you for your timely arrival, were you a minute later, we would have been dead." Tomin said as he bowed his head in respect.

"_You are welcome. We need to get out of here quickly, more Dominion ships are coming." _The prior said.

"Then we will need a tow for this ship has lost its hyperspace capabilities." Tomin said.

"_Four ships will converge momentarily with the one you are currently at to begin towing procedure." _The prior said before the conversation was cut short.

"Alright, recover all 302's and take on any Ori ships that want to dock, Major, you have the lead on the towing procedure, give them your full cooperation." Emerson said.

Ten minutes later a new Dominion war fleet exited hyperspace though by that time the tow was ready and the Ori ships quickly left with the Odyssey in tow.

**Ori held Shipyard**

**April 20**

**0745 hours**

**Bridge Odyssey**

After nearly one and a half day the Odyssey and its escorting Ori warships exited hyperspace. The planet they arrived at was a major Ori shipyard; dozens of orbital shipyards were producing all kinds of ships. In addition to the local defense fleet dozens of defense satellites were positioned around strategic targets.

"Colonel Emerson, General O'Neill, with your permission I would like to leave this ship and return to the defense center on the planet's surface, in the meantime there is a shipyard ready to assist you with repairs and perhaps in finding a way home." Tomin said.

"Actually, I've already got an idea on that." Frasier said, drawing several surprised looks from her superiors.

"Please explain." Janus said.

"When I was aboard the Ori ship I had a look at their sensor systems, it can be used to triangulate a certain position in space much further away than anything we can."

"We already know where we need to go; we just can't get there within a reasonable amount of time." O'Neill said.

"Yes we can, the Colonial FTL drive, the problem with that is that we cannot calculate the jump precisely enough with our own systems. The Ori sensors however, if calibrated to a certain type of radiation produced by a nebula, like the N45-RA nebula just a few light-years beyond the border of the Milky Way galaxy, we can get an accurately enough fix." Frasier explained

"Doesn't that distance require a large amount of power, like something bigger that a ZPM?" Emerson asked.

"True, but a black hole should do the trick, though we'd also need to build a jump drive capable of handling that amount of power." Janus pitched in.

"This is kind of brilliant, how did you think of this?" McKay asked.

"Kind of? McKay, it **IS** brilliant. I'm surprised you hadn't thought this up before." O'Neill defended his adopted niece.

"At any rate, if you provide the blueprints the shipyards will build it for you, now I must really leave to retake command of the district defenses." Tomin said.

"Very well, ensign peters will fly you back towards the surface as well as a science team to help your scientists." Emerson said.

Tomin left after he nodded in respect. McKay, Frasier and Janus also left to start work on getting back home.

For the next two months the Odyssey was repaired and in some regards even upgraded, the Asgard core was used to first design the 'jumpgate' then to calculate the exact jump coordinates. It was also used to help the Ori upgrade their own technology, increase shield and weapon strength, a knowledgebase was established on anything and everything Ori and Dominion, some captured Dominion ships were investigated for intelligence and potential weaknesses. A group of about forty people, scientists, doctors and soldiers alike was formed, all volunteered to stay with the Ori to continue helping them once the Odyssey left.

Within a week the design for the jumpgate was completed and construction started in one of the shipyards. It was also around that time that a suitable black hole was discovered for the jumpgate. Several days later the program was written for the Ori sensors to locate the N45-RA nebula and several Ori warships departed for the far reaches of the Ori galaxy to get a proper fix. While the ships were acquiring the coordinates the jumpgate was completed and brought into position near the black hole.

After nearly two months hard work everything was ready. The coordinates, 128 digits long was known to the Asgard core and the Asgard core only. The jump gate was a sort of exoskeleton in which the Odyssey had to place itself. The jump gate however needed some time to power up and build up a large enough power supply to make the jump.

**June 24 2015**

**0843 hours**

"Sir, the jump gate is at 95 percent. Just another five minutes before we can jump." Frasier reported from a specially designed console on the bridge that was dedicated to control of the jump gate.

"Start moving us into position." Emerson ordered. The Odyssey had so far stayed far enough away from the black hole to prevent interference from the black hole on its systems.

"_General O'Neill, Colonel Emerson, I wish you the best of luck and hope you will be back one day with reinforcements…"_ A beep was heard in the background, followed by more beeps. _"Ehm, we are detecting a massive fleet exiting hyperspace, there might be a mother ship present."_ Tomin said.

"It was too good to be true, no attacks for two months, they must have discovered a part of the organization." O'Neill said.

"Tomin, can you stall them?" Emerson asked.

"_We can try, but Dominion mother ships are usually escorted by a huge fleet, we won't be able to hold them off for that long. I suggest you moved the jump gate and your ship closer to the black hole to speed up the energy gathering."_

"Will do Tomin, thank you for all the help and good luck fighting the Dominion." Emerson said before the connection was cut by the interference from the black hole.

As the Odyssey and the jump gate moved closer to the center of the black hole the Ori fleet engaged the enormous Dominion fleet that exited hyperspace. In the center of the fleet was a massive ship, easily ten times as large as a Wraith Hive ship. The Ori ships didn't even bother to engage it as its shields were near impenetrable. As the Dominion ships engaged the Ori warships they noticed the small Odyssey trying to get away from the battle. Once they recognized the importance of the Odyssey and its strength the mother ship altered course to an intercept course while starting to fire its massive batteries.

The Odyssey, in order to preserve the jump gate, extended its shields over the structure and tied its shields in on the power of the jump gate giving an immense boost.

As the time to jump closed to zero, the distance to the mother ship also neared zero.

On the bridge of Tomin's warship he watched the screen intensely; he saw the power build up reach 100 percent and the converging of the mother ship with the Odyssey. The moment the power reached 100 percent the now single contact disappeared. At first he thought that the mother ship was destroyed but as there was no debris he got concerned.

**Outskirts of the Milky Way galaxy**

**5****th**** Alliance Battle Group (FJN)**

**June 24 2015**

**1243 hours**

The 5th alliance battle group was mainly a Free Jaffa Nation fleet that was dedicated to Alliance control, it was augmented by two Nox frigates type ships. The Jaffa contingent held four upgraded ha'tak's, seven normal Ha'tak's and two Hak'tyl's of which one, the Bra'tac's Pride hosted its fleet commander.

A few minutes earlier it had detected a SOS beacon from the TFS Odyssey and traced it back to a nebula just outside the galaxy. After having relayed the information back to the Alliance HQ on Heliopolis it was decided that the battle group would investigate and render aid if necessary.

**1512 hours**

As the battle group exited hyperspace it got surprised by a scaring sight, in front of them was a ship that simple blocked out the stars, mostly black and arrow shape. Of the Odyssey was no sign though with the phase shifting technology that didn't mean anything. The group, on the alert, raised its shields in defense. There was no sign of life from the mother ship in front of them but as soon as the Jaffa increased the scanning intensity the mystery ship suddenly activated weapons and started firing.

The nearest ships were the two regular Ha'tak's, within seconds their shields were destroyed and the hull shredded to pieces. While the two Ha'tak's were exploding the battle group unanimously opened fire. What surprised them was that there were no shields active though their scans had determined shields were available. As the first of the weapons fire struck the mother ship it tore away at its outer hull, three more Ha'tak's were destroyed, one of which was an upgraded Ha'tak. The mother ship only suffered minimal damage; its hull was designed to take massive amounts of fire in contrary to most Milky Way ships with the exception of the battlestars.

As their weapons fire remained to be un-useful and one of the Nox ships was blown up their commander considered doing the most dishonorable for a Jaffa; retreat. As he relayed the orders to the remaining ships of the fleet his own ship was targeted. The shields were no real match and soon enough weapons fire started to leak through the shields doing damage to the ship. Knowing his ship would not make it into hyperspace in time he ordered a ramming course to be set.

Seconds away from the mother ship the Bra'tak's Pride lost its shields, not far away the Odyssey appeared out of thin air. White beams went over the doomed Hak'tyl rescuing as much as possible crewmembers while launching a jumper which headed for the mother ship. Finally the Hak'tyl collided, fire blossomed the hull of the Hak'tyl briefly before it exploded violently sending debris everywhere. The mother ship was not disabled whatsoever, with only localized damage it continued to keep firing on the fleeing ships managing to destroy another Ha'tak before they were all gone. Afterwards it turned its weapons to where the Odyssey used to be but was unable to get a lock as the Odyssey had disappeared again.

On the bridge of the Odyssey everybody was in awe of what just happened, the largest type of ship the alliance could field –short of Atlantis- just harmlessly collided with the Dominion mother ship. Some 75 out of over 1400 crewmembers were evacuated before the ship was destroyed. Among those rescued was First Prime (Admiral/General) Hak'tor. Hak'tor was among the veterans of the Free Jaffa Nation Fleet, having first served with Teal'c and Bra'tac in the battle of Dakara and many more afterwards.

As Hak'tor entered the bridge with his escort he was immediately greeted by General O'Neill. Colonel Emerson and Janus were off to one side of the bridge monitoring a screen. McKay was doing some techno babble with the XO which Hak'tor didn't understand.

"General O'Neill, it's an honor to meet you again." Hak'tor said.

"It is good to see you to. When was the last time? The Battle for Earth?" O'Neill replied.

"Yes I think it was those were dark days. I lost nearly all my ships that day." Hak'tor said. "What is going on, it seems you are quite busy."

"Yes, we currently have a special ops team on board the mother ship; we're trying to blow it up from the inside. Your arrival was just in time for a distraction."

"With this atomic device you regularly use?"

"Yeah, a mark nine, those are capable of blowing up a stargate."

"That seems ambitious, what is up with that ship anyways, who are they, and where have you been?" Hak'tor asked.

"That ship might as well be our next enemy. In short we were flung half way across the universe to another galactic cluster. There we met two races, these Dominion whom you see out there and the Ori. The Ori and Dominion are at war for a long time and the Ori are losing. The Odyssey was damaged and had no reasonable way back home so we constructed a jump gate which was able to send us back here. When we jumped however that mother ship was practically on top of us and got pulled with us. Once we arrived the emergency transponder activated alerting you guys and we went into hiding. The rest you know."

Right around that time the intercom crackled. _"Odyssey, this is Snake Doc. Package is set and ready, we are retreating to the Jumper and expect to vacate the target within five minutes."_

"Copy that Snake Doc. Contact us again when you have vacated the target." Emerson replied.

"General, who is this Snake Doc.?" Hak'tor asked.

"Snake Doctor is the codename for an Operator from a Special Forces unit commonly known as Delta Force. Basically what they just said is that they set the nuke and are retreating to the jumper to get the hell out of that ship after which the nuke will go off destroying that ship." O'Neill explained.

"I see." Hak'tor replied. They both watched as the crew worked and monitored the situation knowing that they would merely be in the way if they'd interfere.

"Sir, we've detected a signal from the mother ship, it's directed at the Ori galaxy." Gant reported.

"Can we jam it?"

"No, we can read it though."

"What does it say?"

"It's quite a list, it seems to be about the milky way galaxy, amount of ships, planets, powers, and what seems to be an estimated required force to subdue the powers in the Milky Way, Ida and Pegasus Galaxy." Gant said getting whiter as the list progressed.

"That does not look good." Hak'tor said as the list scrolled across the screen.

"No it does not." Janus agreed.

"We're gonna need to get this to the Alliance HQ as soon as possible." O'Neill said.

"First we need to get rid of that mother ship; it's a threat to the galaxy on its own." Emerson.

"_Odyssey this is Frasier, we've vacated the ship and are RTB, I'm gonna upload some stuff that I've downloaded from their servers, it's quite juicy, detailed plans for an invasion of our part of the galactic cluster."_

"Copy, we're ready and awaiting your arrival before we will detonate." Emerson replied.

The ship immediately started receiving information that was automatically stored on the hard drives of the ship. Several minutes later the jumper entered the hanger bay and the bridge was contacted.

"Sir, we are ready for detonation." Gant reported.

"Alright, call the countdown Major." Emerson ordered.

"Counting down from ten… nine… eight… seven… six… five… four… three… two… one detonation."

As Gant said detonation a massive flare appeared somewhere near the back of the mother ship. There however was no bright flash that normally accompanied a nuclear detonation. Around the site of the first flare more appeared as internal detonations rocked the mother ship. It took several minutes before the mother ship broke apart in several large parts and dozens of smaller ones. Each on their own was destroyed by more internal explosions. Finally the mother ships core reactor exploded vaporizing most of the remains of the mother ship.

"Enemy ship destroyed, the only thing left is debris, and the signal is gone." Gant reported. The bridge exploded in applause and cheers.

After a minute as the noise died down Emerson turned his attention to going back to Earth. "Major, deactivate the phase shifting device and give me a status report on the hyperdrive."

"Hyperdrive is still offline but engineering estimates it'll be ready in about twelve hours. Phase devise is deactivated, no problems encountered."

"How about the long range communications?"

"It's active, Do you want me to establish a connection with Atlantis?"

"Yes please do, they haven't heard from us for a long time and the sooner they know of us the better." Emerson said. "General, I take it you wanna bring them the good news?"

"What? Our new enemy? Or our new ally?"

"Both."

"Perfect. Major put it up once you're ready." O'Neill said.

The screen changed into the control room of Atlantis and within seconds General Landry appeared. Landry was the commander of Atlantis and Commander of the Tau'ri Milky Way forces, so basically the counterpart for General Sheppard whom was the highest ranking commander in the Pegasus Galaxy.

"General O'Neill, it's a pleasure to hear from you again and to see that you are fine." Landry greeted O'Neill.

"Yes thank you. I'm going to keep it short and you can get all the details later from Emerson and Janus." O'Neill said. "We were sent half way across the universe to a galaxy inhabited by the Ori, highly advanced and can be compared to the Ancients, just more religious then scientific. We also encountered a race known as the Dominion, they are extremely hostile and are fighting the Ori and are doing a good job at that. There is a strong possibility that they will come to our galaxy."

"Have you heard anything from the alliance fleet we sent to investigate your distress call?" Landry asked.

"They were beaten badly by a ship from the dominion that managed to come along with us. Several ships were destroyed including their flagship. We managed to beam out a few of the crew including first prime Hak'tor before the fleet retreated." O'Neill said.

"And have you destroyed this Dominion ship?"

"Yeah, it wasn't easy though. We had to detonate a nuke near their power generators to even do enough damage."

"Anyways, I'll tell the remains of the alliance fleet to link up with you, they should be there in about five minutes, they'll escort you back to Earth, or at least Tau'ri space.

**Atlantis, Moon, Earth**

**June 30, 11:31 hours**

The Odyssey exited hyperspace together with another 304, immediately white beams transported several people to the control room of Atlantis.

"General O'Neill, welcome back." Landry greeted the General.

"Thank you Hank, I need you to assemble the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the president."

"Already done, they'll be ready in fifteen minutes."

"Good, could you fill me in on what happened while I was gone?" O'Neill asked as they moved into the direction of the nearest transporter.

"Sure, Sheppard's having a hard time fighting the Wraith, mostly since he just doesn't have enough ships to bring enough firepower to bear on the enemy. He can usually destroy a few ships before getting out of the way of the advancing Wraith and Vanir fleets. We have reliable intel that the Wraith have four super hives ready for action. We don't yet know why the super hives haven't been deployed. We've deployed part of the 1st marine division to the Genii and the rest is scattered throughout the Pegasus galaxy. It's just a matter of time now, by next year's start the Sol battle fleet, now renamed the first alliance battle fleet will enter Pegasus to find and destroy anything Wraith and Vanir."

"What does the first alliance fleet consist off?"

"The first Tau'ri battle group with the Sol and the four Aurora's we got from Janus' lab, the third Tau'ri task force with the Saratoga, Plato, Gorbachev and Normandy, and the Second, Eight and Ninth Asgard Task forces each having two O'Neill's and three Beliskner's and Jackson's."

"Nice." O'Neill said. "Please continue."

"Well that's about it for the Pegasus galaxy. Back home the war with the Aschen is just starting. The last few months we've been working closely with the Jaffa and Colonials in order to gather accurate intelligence on the amount of planets, ships, troops and orbital defenses of the Aschen. Meanwhile we've been reactivating old units and recruitment is through the roof. In addition to the three active US and a fourth European marine division in the Milky Way galaxy ,there are six more marine divisions either being brought up to strength or equipped according to our TO&E (table of Organization & Equipment). The second, third and fourth marine divisions have either been deployed or will soon be deployed to our new colonies until heavy army units can be brought in to replace them. We also have strong reasons to believe that the Aschen will use biological and chemical weapons both offensive and defensive. We think that their weapons will only attack foreign troops and that their soldiers and civilians will be immune to the biological and chemical weapons."

"That could become a problem." O'Neill concluded.

"It most certainly could be. Therefore we are currently trying to obtain either a sample or an antidote of the potential weapons they may use against us. The Nox have offered their medical assistance in finding an antidote as soon as we have a sample."

"Have you planned an attack against the Aschen?"

"In about two weeks a colonial battlestar group will link up with several 304's and three converted cargo ships you recovered in Pegasus. They will take the ground force element of the Fifth (EU) marine division and attack a moderately defended Aschen outpost. It will mostly be trial invasion to see how we can perfect amphibious assaults."

"Like Dieppe in '42?"

"Well, let's just hope the results won't be the same." Landry said.

"What else's planned?"

"Nothing big, just regular attacks by SGC units on Lucian Alliance strongholds. We're still building up our war industry it'll be a few years before we run on full capacity, let alone until we've repaired all the damage done by the Wraith."

As they reached the situation room on Atlantis where the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the President were assembled Landry said goodbye and O'Neill took his seat as commander of the Tau'ri Federation Space Forces. "Mister President, we have a problem…"

**TBC**


	5. Chapter 5

**AN: Thanks to Rudy Pena for the beta**

**Enjoy, and please R&R**

**July 15 2015**

**P4R-312**

**Battlestar Atlantia BSG-75**

**Plot room **

Once again Admiral Adama's battlestar group was chosen to lead the attack. This time the target was a small Aschen world, lightly defended and with the help of colonial air support the Tau'ri marines would have little trouble destroying the Aschen garrison. The Tau'ri marine unit chosen for the attack was the newly formed Fifth marine division that was made up of European marine brigades, including the British 3. Commando brigade, a brigade made up from the Dutch Marine Corps augmented by German, Italian and Spanish marine units and a brigade from the French Troupes de marine. The division held nearly 20000 soldiers. The task of the division was to overpower the 60000 man strong garrison and to occupy the planet with its approximately 4 million inhabitants. Part of the division would be beamed down while the rest would be shuttled down by raptors and colonial marine attack shuttles. The Pegasus also held Battalion of Colonial marines ready to assist.

"Okay, so the British will take the Naquadah mines and surrounding villages 200 kilometers to the north of the main city, the Dutch will take the main city itself while the French will engage the main garrison barracks and the airfields just east of the city. If either the Dutch or the French need help they will first help each other and otherwise British or Colonial troops can be brought in. Let me remind you people that this attack's main goal is to gather intelligence and gain experience in performing orbital assaults. Furthermore we want intelligence on the views of the local Aschen people, how much do they know, how strong their will to fight is. The colonials will provide air cover during the initial landings and afterwards on an as necessary base." The Commander of the marine division, Major General Messer said.

"But before we can land any troops we need to rout the ships in orbit." Admiral Adama said. "Fortunately there are only a few ships present so my battlestar group will go in first. Hopefully we can conceal the fact we also have several 304's present. The 304's will come in later escorting the transport ships or when we can't rout the Aschen ships on our own. As soon as we have established orbital control we will commence Viper attacks on ground targets while the marines load up and fly down. Are there any questions?" a series of 'no's' followed. Alright, the battlestars will jump in 2 hours; the 304's and transports will leave five minutes earlier for the fifteen minute hyperspace journey and will arrive ten minutes after the battlestars arrive. T hour is 0800 hours; the time now is T minus 2 hours. Dismissed."

**Two hours and a few minutes later**

As the remains of the Aschen warships were imploding the invasion force exited hyperspace escorted by the 304's. Immediately the battlestars launched their raptors for transport and vipers were already on their way down to the planet to start bombarding military positions and facilities. On their way down the vipers were attacked by a squadron of Aschen fighters which were quickly destroyed.

The raptors, as they reached the transports docked at specially designed airlocks which allowed raptors, jumpers and other kinds of small craft to dock temporary with the transports.

Sergeant Schol of the first Dutch MarBat was among the troops loading up for the first wave and would be one of the first to land on the planet down below. His task was to take his twelve man squad and secure the roof of a parking structure near the Dutch main LZ (Landing Zone). They would repel down from the two Raptors they were transported in and use small explosives to cut down any obstacles on the rooftop in order to allow five other raptors to land and unload the rest of the platoon which would clear the rest of the parking structure. The two raptors they'd use were customized to allow for repelling down, their thrusters were altered because otherwise the marines would be blown away too much.

Just as the raptor made it through the atmosphere Sergeant Schol ordered his marines to do a last check. He himself made his way up to the cockpit to have a look at the target. As they were on their final approach some AAA fire came their way, although it didn't present too much of a threat. Nevertheless a flight of Vipers quickly bombed the AAA site out of existence. As they flew over the outskirts of the city several military trucks were caught entering the city, unfortunately the vipers could not engage due to the high chance of civilian casualties.

As the raptor came in above the parking structure it slowed to a hold and hovered at about fifteen meters above the surface. Then the hatch opened and a repelling construction was placed on the short wing. First of was Sergeant Schol and a PFC. As Schol repelled down he incidentally got hit by a stray blast from the thrusters as it corrected for a wind gust. As he landed on the surface of the parking structure he immediately unhooked and ran about ten meters to establish a perimeter for the rest of his squad to land. There were only two places where someone could access the rooftop; the first was the main car access, the other was an emergency staircase. Schol covered the emergency staircase while the second man, the squad's heavy gunner covered the car access. On the other side of the roof the other raptor deployed its troops. Soon enough two bags full of explosives were lowered and the raptors; now empty left the area for another pick up.

Sergeant Schol didn't even have to give orders. His soldiers were well trained and the roles had already been made clear. Of the thirteen man total two would set up a post on the four corners of the roof, another pair was deployed to the car access. The other three marines, including Schol took a bunch of explosives and started placing them at the base of all obstacles such as streetlights and antennas. Within minutes the first of many obstacles were cut down by light explosions. After about five minutes of hard work there was enough room for the raptors to bring in the rest of the platoon.

"Contact!" one of the marines covering the North-Eastern corner yelled just before firing a long salvo of rifle fire. Just around that time the raptors carrying the first landing wave flew over to the square to the South which was the main LZ. As Schol and two other marines reached the North-Eastern corner the enemy started returning fire. When there was a momentarily pause is fire Schol peeked over the edge to see what they were up against. What he saw was about a platoon with no heavy weapons pinned down to the side of some houses and behind cars looking for cover. To his right the squad's machine gunner took the pause of fire as an opportunity to set up and start firing. He managed to take down two soldiers before he had to take cover.

"Schiffers!" Schol called out to his radioman. The man came running to him within seconds. "Tell the platoon the LZ is hot!" Schol said, indicating the enemy fire flying over their heads which might hit a descending raptor. It wouldn't prevent the raptors from landing but they would be more cautious and faster.

"203!" a PFC yelled just before he launched a grenade with his M203 grenade launcher. The PFC had aimed carefully for the hostile whom was giving all the orders and had the most metal on his shoulder. As it later turned out it was an officer with the equivalent rank of a major, he led a probing action to see where the attacking forces were located. His loss held up his entire battalion for over four hours giving the marines enough time to land enough troops and set up a line of defense.

"They're charging!" someone yelled moments after over half the Aschen soldiers left their cover and ran across the street trying to reach the bottom of the parking structure.

"Open fire!" Schol ordered. As one the five soldiers got up and leveled their weapons at the charging soldiers. Their automatic weapons fire ripped into the Aschen with deadly efficiency. In the end only twelve out of thirty made it across, the rest was either dead or wounded severely enough to be incapacitated. Right around the time the building was breached the first of five raptors landed and unloaded the second squad and the platoon commander.

The platoon's commander, a lieutenant Ter Wiel radioed to Schol. _"Sergeant, what's the status?"_

"The building's been breached by about a dozen hostiles and there's about a dozen others pinned down outside."

"_Any casualties?"_

"None, we just used up a tad bit too much ammo."

"_That's no problem; the last raptor is bringing in some extra ammo as well as the heavy weapons squad."_

"Copy that." Schol returned as the second and third raptor landed to unload more of the platoon.

"_Alright marines, second and third squad will fight their way to the base of this structure; first squad will provide over watch and prevent others from entering the building. So far there are about a dozen confirmed hostiles in the building. Good luck and kick some ass."_

The two squads quickly made their way down the car access on their way to the inevitable clash with the Aschen forces in the building. On the top of the building Ter Wiel and the spare squad joined Schol on the North-Eastern side of the building pouring down on the unfortunate Aschen on the ground below them. The Aschen soldiers did not yield to the masses of fire coming their way.

"Medic!" one of the marines on the other side of the structure yelled. One of the PFC's was a trained medic and quickly made his way over. On the ground below several APC like vehicles opened fire on the soldiers on top of the building.

As Schol made his way over to the wounded soldier he ordered his squad to converge on the corner of the new attack. "Medic, get him ready for transport, the last two raptors will be here any moment, and we need to get him on it. Soon enough the wounded soldier was ready for transport and not a moment too soon. The last two raptors flew over at high speed under heavy fire. They quickly slowed down to a halt and landed. The fourth raptor let out the first part of the heavy weapons squad and was soon loaded up with the wounded soldier. The last raptor had to stay down for a bit longer as certain supplies had to be unloaded. By the time the raptor was empty there was a considerable amount of fire flying just over them.

As the raptor lifted off it took a lot of fire. Now, the raptor isn't the weakest among transports and can take a shitload of fire but for any ship there is a limit of what they can handle and the limit was quickly reached. At first one engine blew out and not much later the other engine blew out. The raptor, now unable to steer properly crash landed into a nearby street.

"_LT, you want fourth squad to secure the crash site?" _One of the sergeants asked.

"You already reached ground level?" Ter Wiel asked.

"_No sir, we're on the first floor but we've got all accesses covered and third squad can hold them. There's some junk next to the building we can use as a step down, sir I think we can make it there's=- still a chance the pilots are alive."_

"Okay, do it. I'm gonna have someone cover you from up top. Good luck." Ter Wiel said.

**T plus two hours**

**Plot room**

**Battlestar Galactica**

As Adama walked into the plot room he saw the Major of the Colonial Marines battalion aboard the Pegasus. "Major, can you give me a status report?" Adama asked as he walked to the plot table that showed an advanced image of the ground situation.

"Admiral Adama. We're doing well. Not great but it's as can be expected. The British have completely secured the mining facilities and villages to the north. They are currently rounding up the prisoners and assuring the civilians that they won't be harmed. The French have destroyed most of the main garrison, right now only a force the size of a battalion is offering resistance in the concrete bunkers under the barracks. The Dutch are still fighting, mostly due to larger opposition than originally thought and armored vehicles. The high population density makes it difficult for us to use vipers and raptors to destroy the vehicles and troop concentrations and they know it."

"What is being done about that?"

"We're transporting one of three battalions of the British into the city and my battalion is being readied. Furthermore the Tau'ri are deploying 302's from their battle cruisers since their fighters have better anti tank missiles."

"Okay, that's good, anything else?"

"No sir." The major said. Right around that time a messenger walked in and gave him a single paper with the corners cut off as was traditional for the colonials. "Sir, the British have found something massive. I've got their commander, Ground Fox Six on the line."

"Put him through." Adama said as he picked up a nearby headset. "Ground fox Six, this is Galactica Six, what you've got?"

"_Galactica Six, this is Ground fox Six. Admiral, we're picking up some strange energy readings down here near the mines, we'd like you to send down a geological survey team to see if there's something in the ground or mines."_ The British commander of the brigade asked with his typical English accent.

"Ground fox Six, can you be a little less vague about the energy readings, and wouldn't you need a science team for energy readings?"

"_Eh Galactica six, we think it may be Naquadriah related."_

"Copy that, say no more, the teams are on their way." Adama said. He put the headset down. "Lieutenant, tell the Chief to put a Geological survey team together ASAP and send them down to the mines."

**July 29 0643**

**Midway station, gym**

Sheppard was making his daily run, on the tread way. He preferred just running but ever since there were some complaints about a stranger waking everybody up by running over the metal floor of the hallways he went to the gym. His attention was caught by a certain Traveler commander whom just entered the nearly abandoned gym.

"Larin." He said.

"Sheppard, How ya doin?"

"That's General for you Larin. But I'm fine, thank you, how about you?"

"I'm great, can't you see?" she said as she teased him.

"So I see." Sheppard said drooling.

"Well, I better get on; my ship's leaving in two hours after the repairs are completed."

About an hour and 15 minutes later Sheppard had showered and was in his old Atlantis uniform.

"General Sheppard?" a female voice asked.

"Yes?" Sheppard said as he turned around. "Commander Helios, what can I do for you?" ever since the Odyssey dropped the Lantean station right in front of the Midway station before continuing on its path to a bigger enemy Commander Helios and Sheppard spoke nearly every day. As it were, Helios was the leader of the last fifty odd Lanteans known to be alive. The Lanteans mostly kept to themselves on the station to do scientific research and plan their road to ascension. Nevertheless they were quite the help, especially for Janus and his research.

"You can tell us when the walkway will be operational, our current way of transportation is quite ineffective, as well as power hungry."

"It still isn't finished? Sheppard asked in unbelief, and when Helios shook her head he cursed. "That damned Kavanagh, the bastard's been telling me he'd have it finished within a few days. I'm gonna shove him out of an airlock one of these days."

"That may be a bit radical; doesn't your hierarchy allow you to transfer him to another command?" Helios laughed.

"Yeah, but I can't burden someone else with him, after all here is where he can do the least amount of damage, imagine what could happen if he was placed aboard the Sol. He did blow up the first midway station you know."

"So I have been told. But you shouldn't worry; I already have someone watch every move he makes." Helios laughed.

"That's grea…" Sheppard said before he was cut off by a big and loud bang that reverberated through the entire station. "Lorne, report!" he said in his earpiece.

"_It seems to be a small asteroid sir. The sensors didn't pick it up after it was too late. Damage seems to be minimal."_

"Okay, copy that, Sheppard out." Sheppard ended the short conversation. Seconds later Lorne made an announcement over the PA informing all inhabitants of the station.

"So how are you and your crewmembers doing? I imagine it was quite a shock when you heard the Wraith had won the war." Sheppard asked.

"I must admit it was quite a shock, for everyone. We had never expected to lose the war at the time we started our expedition. We knew the war was going the wrong way but we thought that with a few hundred years of hiding we would have been able to build up our forces and the high council would eventually contact us again. As time went by we just figured that the council had decided to fall back for a longer period of time than was originally anticipated. We never thought that the council would give up and leave forever without warning us. Though now we are happy that we can still be useful to someone in the fight against the Wraith, and your fight looks a lot more promising, you know how to fight. We hadn't seen war for over a million years when the war started."

"That, is true, we do know how to throw a party. Unfortunately we are currently involved in two wars and a possible third on the way, and that's not even counting the Lucian alliance."

**July 9**

**2247 hours**

**Presidential Residence, Atlantis**

"So doctor, I hope you can understand that someone for this position needs to be, well how to put it, perfect. This person will represent the Tau'ri federation on an intergalactic level, wars can be prevented, and millions of lives can be saved. Our current ambassador is just not good enough." President Hayes said to the only other person in the room.

"Oh I understand you. I'd say the person you were looking for is Doctor Weir, unfortunately she's gone."

"Yes, yes she is." Hayes said.

"So, if I may, who do you have in mind for the job?"

"Well, that'd be you Doctor Jackson. I want you to be the new Tau'ri ambassador to the Alliance on Heliopolis." Hayes said. "You're the best fit for the job. You are capable of overcoming differences between races that might have others stuck for months, you are a personal friend of Thor and a hero among the Asgard, you are among the best friends of Teal'c, the vice premier of the Free Jaffa, the Nox respect you and you have quite some friends among the Colonials."

"Well, in the face of such overwhelming argument all I can say is, I accept. When can I start?" Jackson asked.

"Well, the senate first needs to approve your appointment, and after that the alliance needs to approve it but considering your status it won't be a problem, say a week before you can pack up here and resettle on Heliopolis and another week to get set up and pick your staff."

"Okay, great."

"Nice, So if you won't mind, I'll very diplomatically shove you out of here so I can get some sleep, I've got a date with the joint Chiefs tomorrow morning."

"Oh that's quite alright sir, I've got an early wake up call to, by jack." Jackson said as he opened the door and stepped through. The door closed and Jackson started on his way back to his quarters, incidentally saying hello to secret service agents and other personnel still working at a late hour. As he neared his quarters he started to feel a strange, vibe, like if someone was following him.

Mere minutes before he reached his quarters he decided to go visit an old friend from the SGC, whom had his own lab on Atlantis. Doctor Jay Felger, the designer of the X-699, now named M700 and now working on improving the weapon for an A2 Version. Because of the nature of the research his lab was located far away from any important or volatile parts. His lab also had a small shield generator to contain a moderate blast that the naquadah power source could cause.

"Doctor Felger?" Jackson asked as he entered the lab.

Felger appeared from under a table on which a M700 was placed. There were various wire going to and from the weapon, all to computers around it. "Hey, hello Doctor Jackson, what brings you down here?"

"I just wondered how you were doing; I haven't seen you in a while." Jackson said.

"Oh, im fine, just so busy with the upgrade for the M700, in fact, I was just about to run a last test on this new type of holographic sight, would you care to stay?"

"Yeah sure, you need me to stand outside the shield barrier?"

"Nah, it won't be that dangerous, if something goes wrong there will just be a few sparks."

"Okay sure."

"Alright." He typed a few commands on his computer. "Initiating local shields." A low hum could be heard as the shields activated and surrounded the lab. "This will just take a minute." Felger said as equipment started to activate.

"So how are you and Cloe doing?" Jackson asked, referring to the blonde assistant of Felger whom had a crush on him for over a decade now. It was clear to anyone but Felger himself.

"Huh? There's nothing going on between us." Felger said nervously.

"Oh come on, it's obvious she likes you, and don't tell me you two haven't dated before?"

"Well, there was this one time-" Felger confessed before a series of beeps pulled his attention to the M699 on the table. "It's ready to fire."

**Control room**

"Hey Chuck." Amelia Banks said as she took a seat at one of the control stations. "Thanks for covering; I had some business to take care of."

"No problem, I wanted to get some work done anyways."

Anything happened while I was gone?" Banks asked.

"Nothing whatsoever, it has actually gone pretty quiet since Sheppard's gone you know."

"Yeah, no more pranks and those fights between Sheppard and McKay."

"You know, once, during the second year of the expedition I think, Sheppard-" Chuck started but was short by the fait noise of an explosion and a weak shock. Seconds later an alarm started blaring. "There was an explosion in one of the labs on the south pier, Doctor Felger's lab. The local shields were active and prevented any damage beyond the lab itself. Damage control parties are on their way and Medical has been alerted."

"Was there anybody in there?" Banks asked as more people entered the control room and started working.

"Check the logs of the life sign detector and compare that to the locator device of all SG personnel." Chuck ordered.

"Got it, there were two life signs present, cross checking with locator signals." Banks said as she opened another program. "Damn, the two present were Doctor Felger and Doctor Jackson. The signal of Doctor Felger has ceased to transmit but that of Doctor Jackson is still transmitting even though there is no life sign."

"Contact General O'Neill, he'll want to know this." Chuck said.

**0354**

**Bridge, Sol**

**Drydock, Atlantis**

"_All hands to battle stations, this is a drill, I repeat, all hands to battle stations, this is a drill!"_ the PA announced as alarms blared throughout the ship.

"What do we have?" Carter asked as she entered the bridge still buttoning up her uniform. She noticed the observers standing in a far corner of the bridge noticing everything she and her crew were doing and making loads of notes.

"Hyperdrive malfunction dropped us out straight in the middle of a Wraith invasion fleet. Eight hives and two super hives plus all escorting types." Marks reported.

"Raise shields to full power. Task three turrets to take out the nearest super hive. The rest is to target hives and cruisers. Have the CILS take out any darts that dare to come to close. Launch fighters on protective duty and load up a few mark eights for targets of opportunity." Carter ordered. "Also send a request for back up to any nearby 304's." she added in an afterthought.

For a while orders where acknowledged and executed, early results came in and the status of the shields was read aloud as it took simulated damage. As time progressed hives and cruisers were 'destroyed' and damage was taken. The virtual battle continued to progress in the favor of the Sol and after nearly fifteen minutes the remains of the Wraith fleet fled the battle and the drill was called to an end.

The next three hours all actions were carefully scrutinized by the observers and the crew's responses were evaluated. In the end the drill was rated a solid good, not a very good, but a good nevertheless. After everything was over she decided to change and wake up Jack for an early morning run along the piers of the city.

**0712 hours**

As Sam reached their quarters she entered expecting to find Jack in his work out gear, instead she found him in his dress uniform. "Jack? What's up? Why aren't you in your work out gear, I thought we were going for a run this morning?"

"There was an accident this morning, a lab blew up. There is one confirmed dead, namely Doctor Felger, and one presumed dead, Daniel." Jack said with sadness in his voice and on his face.

"Wow, Daniel." Was all Sam could say while trying to block tears from flowing. "Why presumed?" Sam asked after she cleared her throat.

"They recovered Doctor Felger's remains, but all they could found of Jackson were the transponder, his glasses and his watch, no body, no blood, nothing. His watch was scorched on the outside but pristine on the back side. You know anything that would cause this?" Jack asked.

"All I can think of is Ascension. Have you told Vala already?" Sam asked.

"I was just about to when you arrived."

"Alright, give me a minute and I'll join you after I've changed. Have you contacted Teal'c?" Sam asked as she went to one of the closets and pulled out one of her dress uniforms and started changing in the bedroom.

"He'll be here as soon as possible but he had some business to take care off before he could make it here."

**Somewhere, out there, on a higher plain of existence**

Daniel walked through a street that could have been any small American town's main street. After a while he reached a restaurant, or rather what remained of it. Most of the restaurant was blown up and one of the few things left was a sign with the restaurant's name. Suddenly it hit him, it was the same restaurant as where he met Anubis is his ascended form, and where Oma Desala finally took action against him by battling him in eternity.

"Welcome back Daniel." Someone behind him said.

He turned around and was face to face with an ascended. "Hi Morgan, at last we meet again, though I think it could have been under better circumstances."

"Well, you deserved it this time; I just gave you a little push when the time was there."

"What actually happened here?" Daniel asked.

"A lot of things have changed since you left. The destruction you see here is the result of a Council approved action, it destroyed seventeen ascended beings. They attempted to arrest members of the resistance, we resisted." Morgan said.

"Resistance? Council approved action? What the hell is going on here?" Daniel asked confused.

"As I said, thing have changed since you left. The ascended domain has fallen into a civil war. The conflict over our policy of non interference has grown too big to be solved through talking."

"Really, I never imagined ascended beings being unable to talk something out."

"Neither did I. it was only after we learned of the destructive powers of the Dominion that we truly wanted to do something instead of waiting for our death. Many of us saw the Tau'ri as the perfect chance to stop these monsters, but even now, their chances are virtually nonexistent without our help."

"How do you imagine the Ascended beings can help the Tau'ri?" Daniel asked.

"By actively preventing the Dominion to access powers beyond their level, and showing the Tau'ri where there are old caches of weapons hidden. We can also help with locating Dominion fleets and report their destinations. We still could not directly interfere; it would create a precedent for future wars and would force us to take action in those wars as well."

"But this could only happen after you have taken control of the council. How are you planning to do that?"

"We need to raise awareness to our cause, most ascended don't know much of what is going on at the lower plains, they believe the propaganda the council is spreading. You are a diversion, because of your ties to the Tau'ri and your previous actions the council will watch you intensely. While they are preoccupied with you we can gather our forces to make a stand, a stand that will let every ascended being know what is really going on."

"Okay, when do we start?" Daniel simply asked.

**Proculus**

**Temple of Athar**

**July 22 **

**1435 hours**

After a long walk from where they landed the jumper to where the temple of Athar was General Sheppard, Lieutenant Boloney and two escorting marines reached the temple. They were greeted by the high priestess of Athar, Chaya Sar, whom in fact was also Athar and an ascended being.

"John Sheppard, I've been awaiting your arrival." Chaya greeted him.

"So I've been told, in my dreams." Sheppard said.

"I see Daniel Jackson has spoken to you as well."

"Yes he has, and I've now completed all the preparations, I was just wondering if you needed me to do anything else and if you were ready as well."

"I have been ready for quite a while. All I need you to do is to keep to the plan as explained to you by Daniel Jackson. First you will gather civilians from all Pegasus races on Proculus, and as I will signal you, you will make sure the Wraith and Vanir know about it. Then you are free to assemble a fleet to take out the Wraith fleet that will undoubtedly come to cull the planet as my fellow ascended beings will defend it."

"And how exactly will this benefit you or me for that matter?" Sheppard asked.

"Why so many questions? I hope you are not expecting an answer to all of them." Chaya replied.

"Well, I hadn't expected all of this to be true and thought this was just a bad dream, but some answers would be good." Sheppard admitted.

"In time John, in time you will get all the answers you desire. But for now, you must do with what you have now. Now please come and rest, I'm sure it has been a long walk." Chaya said as she led the group inside her temple where they could rest and relax.

**August 2**

**1200 hours**

**Plot room**

**Battlestar Galactica**

Adama again walked into his plot room to find the major of the marine force aboard Pegasus present and working on the map updating it.

"Major, what is the total casualty count so far?" Adama asked.

"We have 1200 KIA, and another 3150 WIA. The enemy is now totally defeated with nearly 45.000 POW's and the rest has been killed. The Tau'ri have evacuated most of their dead and all the heavy wounded to Earth, they have also brought in additional ground units, namely six reserve brigades totaling about 28.000 troops."

"Good, what are the plans for now?"

"The Tau'ri are investigating the size of the Naquadah and Naquadriah deposits to see if it warrants establishing a mining operation. If they decide to establish mining operations they will also build a base which will replace the already planned forwards operations post a few light years away from here."

"That forward operations post would be the staging area for any future attacks on Aschen planets right?"

"Yes sir. The Tau'ri are already training units for an invasion of Aschen planets, they just need to find a solution to all the biological warfare the Aschen are known for. We were lucky the Aschen didn't deploy any biological here."

"Have we found anything useful related to biological warfare?"

"Yeah, we recovered computers with files on their bio agents and their rules for deployment. Fortunately we were lucky and a missile that went astray destroyed the biological weapons bunker and destroyed all the viruses."

"Lucky us, has the data been sent to Atlantis?"

"Yes admiral, they are already working on vaccines."

"Great, now I need you to make a briefing for your successor, we are being relieved in a few days by Belzen's BSG 22."

"Yes sir."

**AN: Next Chapter will feature the BB-305 Sol in its full glory**


	6. Chapter 6

**the 6th chapter already. as promised the Sol will have its first fight and the Vanir are not going to be happy! **

**so without further delay, Enjoy**

**November 11, 2015**

**0832 hours**

**Bridge, TFS Sol**

**Atlantis BB-305 Shipyard**

"Colonel Marks, Contact Atlantis control and request permission to initiate take off procedure." General Carter ordered from her chair. Just a few hours previous the ship had been christened. All construction on the ship had been completed and it was ready for its shakedown cruise at the Midway Station.

Marks contacted Atlantis Control with the request and soon received the go ahead. "Ma'am, We have the go ahead from control."

"Alright, Switch from umbilical power to internal power." Carter ordered. Immediately a crewmember acknowledged it and seconds later the lights flickered as the ships own power plants, augmented by the two ZPM's started producing huge amounts of power. "Initiate inertial compensators and dampeners." Again a crewmember acknowledged. "Activate shields at takeoff stance, sub light engines on standby, and activate primary and secondary thrusters."

"Shields ready." An ensign reported.

"Sub light engines on standby."

"Primary thrusters activated, so are the secondary's."

"General, all systems are ready for takeoff." Marks reported.

"Contact Atlantis control and request permission for takeoff." Carter ordered.

Marks again contacted Atlantis control and requested permission for takeoff; he pushed the reply op on the PA. _"General Carter, TFS Sol, you are cleared for takeoff, welcome to the fleet, good luck and go kick some major ass out there."_ General O'Neill came in over the PA.

"Yes sir will do." Carter replied. She turned to Marks. "Colonel, commence takeoff procedure, maximum safe speed."

"Yes ma'am." Marks replied. "Alright, deactivate docking clamps, set inertial compensators and dampeners to max." he waited until the systems were ready and docking clamps were deactivated. "Raise thrusters to 20 percent output and set a nav. Course for a geosynchronous orbit over the docks."

Slowly the massive ship lifted out of the dock. As it reached several hundred meters it passed through the shields.

"We're clear of the shields." An ensign reported.

"Ignite main thrusters. Set to normal burn." Marks ordered.

Suddenly the ship surged forwards as the main sub light engines activated.

It quickly reached the fleet that was up in orbit waiting for the Sol to arrive as the fleet's flagship.

"Colonel, put us in the center of the fleet." Carter stood up. "I'm going to the flag room, you have the bridge." She said as she walked through the blast resistant doors.

A minute later she arrived in the Flag room. It was basically the bridge for the entire battle fleet; from here she could command all the ships in the first Alliance fleet and any other ships in the area. The first alliance battle fleet was a formidable group of ships of Tau'ri, ancient and Asgard origin. With the Sol, four Aurora's, four BC-304's, six O'Neill's, nine Jackson's and nine Beliskner's it was the most powerful fleet known to history. Within minutes the 33 ships strong fleet entered hyperspace for the relatively short journey to the midway station.

**November 13**

**Midway station control room**

As a console beeped the entire First Alliance Battle fleet exited hyperspace near the Midway Station.

"General Carter, Welcome to the Midway Station. If you have the time I'd like to get a tour of that new ship of yours." Sheppard greeted Carter and the fleet.

"_Thank you for the welcome, I had already expected you wanted a tour. We'll dock with the station in about fifteen minutes so we can start offloading supplies and construction materials for the station, you can come aboard then." _Carter replied. Ever since the construction of the second Midway station it was in constant growth. By now it was more than a military station, it looked more and more like a colony in space. The crew of the station had already brought in their families, which increased the need for schools, shops, theatres, day care centers and such. Of course there were also the Travelers which were just starting to explore the wonders of the Tau'ri's civilization like designer clothes and all the forms of entertainment. The station had recently received its first ZPM to cover the ever increasing shield coverage and increasing demands of the protective weaponry.

"Copy that general, you can use docking station four, see you soon." Sheppard replied.

The massive Sol slowly approached the Midway Station. The ship was about the length of an Aurora though it had much smoother curves. The ship had a dull grey color, the same as the rest of the Tau'ri ships. As the Sol slowed down to a halt a walkway extended itself from the station up to the main entrance of the Sol. For a minute the life support systems were busy creating gravity, pressure and breathable air. At the end a solid fifty meters connection was created between the Sol and the Midway Station.

As soon as it was safe, General Carter and two marines made their way down the walkway. The marines would stand guard at the walkway to guard the ship's only entrance from any unwanted visitors.

"General Carter." Sheppard greeted.

"General Sheppard, Request permission to come aboard." Carter said as she formally saluted Sheppard. Though their ranks were the same Sheppard had a higher position in the Chain of Command as the commander of all Tau'ri forces in the Pegasus Galaxy, including the First Alliance Battle Fleet.

"Granted General." Sheppard said as he returned the salute. "Sam, it's good to see you again, you look great." Sheppard then continued on a more personal note.

"Same here John. This time it's the other way around huh? You in command instead of me."

"Yeah well, we work well together. How about that tour?"

"Yeah sure, why not, we've got some time left." Carter said as she turned around and guided Sheppard into the ship. It was quite busy on the ship; it held a crew of 805 enlisted personnel and officers. That wasn't counting the 250 marines that made up the security contingent.

The two of them chatted along as they passed workstations, labs and crew quarters. Eventually they reached the forward manual weapons control station.

"So this is where all the good stuff happens, right?" Sheppard asked.

"Only when the bridge controls aren't working."

Sheppard looked all the screens over. "You sure got a lot of firepower here. What's the total armament?"

"We've got eight turrets, each housing three Asgard plasma beam weapons just like on board the 304's, though with better power conduits. Four of the turrets are on top of the ship in a square at about a quarter of the ship. There are two turrets to the side, one on each side at about three quarters to the back. The final two however are something special. We wanted a way to shift some of the firepower around from one side of the ship to the other without having to turn the entire ship. The last two turrets are housed on rails that run horizontally across the bow of the ship."

"Nice. So how about CIWS?"

"Try CILS. Close in laser Systems. Instead of using railguns we use dialed down Asgard beams that can fire much more rapidly. We've got 24 of 'em, all capable of moving from port to starboard, again via rails. We do have twelve normal railguns although they are fixed. We've also got four 105mm railguns mounted above the forward turrets capable of firing naquadah enhanced rounds with a yield up to 1 kiloton. There are sixteen Launch tubes for missiles and we've got an armory with 320 missiles and a variety of load outs. The Armory also holds over eight hundred anti fighter missiles with a regular warhead."

"That sounds like something I wouldn't want to piss off. You've got fighters too right?" Sheppard asked.

"Yeah, the runways are on the bottom of the ship, it kind of looks like a Nimitz class aircraft carrier. It's about 400 meters long and runs at about two thirds to the back diagonally through the ship allowing for simultaneous takeoff and landing. We've got four squadrons of F-302's, three of the A variant and one of the experimental B variant. We've also got eight jumpers."

"Nice, when are you gonna take her out?" Sheppard asked. "I'd pay money to see all this fighting a bunch of super hives."

"Yeah, I'm sure I could make a lot of money selling tickets to that fight. I'm planning on cutting the last week of the trials and take her out towards the Pegasus galaxy on November 29th, we'll arrive on the first and depending on any sightings we will have our first fight within a week."

"Any chance I can take a 302 out for a ride while you're docked here?"

"No luck, your station is in the way for a proper 302 launch."

"Ah, yeah, slamming into midway would make for a very short flight." Sheppard said.

"Ehm, General Carter, General Sheppard?" A man dressed in civilian clothes asked. He was escorted by two airmen, one carrying a camera while the other took care of the sound. "Hi, I'm Paul Donner, CNN. Could I ask you a few questions?"

"You can ask but I can't promise I'll answer them." Sheppard said before Carter could decline.

"Well, General Sheppard, What do you think of the Sol?"

"From what I have seen this ship will outclass anything I've encountered before. It has one of the strongest weapon systems, shields and has two ZPM. Add to that the crew and its commander and you've got a well-oiled killer machine ready to kick some Wraith ass."

"And what do you exactly think about all those energy weapons? How much are there actually?" Donner asked.

"Come one Paul, you know you can't ask that. Things like that are classified in order to protect national security." Sam jumped in.

"_General Sheppard, you have a call from Midway, its important, highest security."_ The PA announced.

"I'm sorry Mister Donner, we're gonna have to cut this short." Sam said as she gave the two airmen a signal to stop filming and get the hell out of there. She also led Sheppard to the nearest secured console. Sheppard keyed in his access code, and a channel was established.

"Lorne what's up?" Sheppard asked as Lorne's head appeared on screen.

"_You've got General Carter there too?"_ Lorne asked. Sheppard nodded and Lorne continued. _"Moments ago we received a communiqué from the Deadelus ahead of schedule. It turns out that a force of four Super hives has been detected by a Traveler ship. Ever since the ship has been trailing the hives and its course is consistent. They are heading to the Genii's home world."_

"What's their ETA?" Sheppard asked.

"_About four to five days."_ Lorne replied.

"What is the exact composition of the fleet?" Carter asked.

"_Four super hives, eleven hives and twenty three cruisers as far as we know. A force not seen since the attack on Earth." _Lorne said.

"You thinking what I'm thinking?" Sheppard asked Sam.

"Yeah, I'm gonna get busy. We'll have to rush three weeks of trials into two days but we can manage it."

"Okay, Lorne, I need you to inform Earth and inform them of the situation and tell them that the Battle Fleet is going into action soon."

"_Yes sir, and General Carter, good luck."_ Lorne said before the connection faded.

"Well, I'll just get off your ship so you can get started on your preparations." Sheppard said.

**November 17**

**Flag room BB-305 SOL**

**Geosynchronous orbit over Genii home world**

All the ships of the First Alliance Battle Fleet plus the Deadelus and Apollo were assembled over the Genii home world. The commanders of the four task forces and the one battle group as well as Colonel's Caldwell and Ellis, and General Carter were assembled in the Flag room which held a holographic representation of the Genii home world and its solar system. Colonel Reynolds of the Normandy was also the commander of the Third Tau'ri Task Force and the Asgard Tjolver, Freyr and Kvasir were the commanders of the second, eighth and ninth Asgard Task forces respectively.

Carter as highest ranking and commander of the entire battle fleet took the lead and presented her plan.

"Alright, by now we know that there aren't any more ships incoming for either side of this battle so the conditions are set. I wanna hide the fact that the Asgard are here until after we've engaged the Wraith ships. This is also to lure the darts in our direction because we all know that the Asgard's weapon systems are designed to fight capital ships, not fighters. I want to make a single line of all Earth made ships with the Sol in the middle. We engage the Wraith with all the weapons we have. The moment the super hives open fire I want all the 304's to break position and start taking evasive maneuvers. At that same moment the three Asgard task forces will jump in and each take one side so that the Wraith are surrounded on all sides. The Aurora's will join in wherever necessary so they will be a reserve force, if possible we won't have to reveal the fact we possess them at all. Now we know that an O'Neill class ship can easily take the fire of a super hive, but the Jacksons and Beliskners are still vulnerable, so I want them to either hide behind the O'Neill's while still firing or to take evasive maneuvers." Carter said. All the while the holographic image detailed the planned actions and presumed responses of the Wraith. "Any questions, comments or anything else?"

"You'll probably be facing the most fire power here." Caldwell started. "The Wraith know something is up. We haven't made a real stand in the last few months. That beside, they will be suspicious when they see a completely new ship, which appears to be Tau'ri made. We were able to pick up on the Sol and its power signature the moment we came out of hyperspace and it is much stronger than even an Aurora. What I'm trying to say is that the Wraith will either try to board the Sol, or they will simply throw everything they've got in your direction not caring about the rest of us."

"I must agree with Colonel Caldwell, you are putting your ship in grave danger, certainly more than is responsible for a ship so new." Kvasir said. He and his two fellow Asgard were seated in their thrones.

"I suggest you use the Aurora's to cover the Sol as soon as the 304's have moved away. Deploy them in a square formation around the Sol to prevent the Wraith from flanking the Sol." Tjolver said.

"Okay, that does actually make more sense." Carter agreed. "Then that's the way we'll do it. The Wraith fleet will arrive at around 4 AM November 18th, I suggest we all get our ships in position and in the meantime I'll have a chat with Mister Radim of the Genii detailing him how we are going to protect his home world. Dismissed." One by one the commanders disappeared in a flash of light until only Carter and several Staff officers were left. The Staff officers were there to man the Flag room while it is activated.

**November 18**

**0355 hours**

**Flag room, BB-305 SOL**

"General Carter, long range sensors have the Wraith at two minutes out." An officer reported.

"Battle stations." Carter ordered.

Across the fleet the ships made themselves combat ready. Shields were raised to full power, weapons were readied and F-302's were brought into launch position.

Two minutes later the Wraith fleet exited hyperspace. Immediately all F-302 squadrons were launched, ten in total. In response the Wraith launched their darts numbering in the thousands.

"_Hey Top, what are the odds here huh? One to fifteen?"_ one of the fighter pilots asked his CO.

"_Try one on twenty; I'm registering over three thousand contacts."_ The CO replied.

"People, keep it professional will ya? There's enough for you to shoot at out there." Carter interjected.

"Fighters are reaching extreme missile range." A major reported.

"Tell them to fire when ready." Carter said. She stared intensely at the holographic projection that showed the ten squadrons converging with literally a wall of Wraith darts. Seconds later small triangles raced away from the 302's and towards the darts.

"Ten seconds to impact."

The triangles got closer and now some of them were disappearing as they were shot down by the Wraith. Eventually close to 120 missiles hit home. Everywhere they hit multiple darts were destroyed. The wall of darts now started to show holes in it.

"302's are engaging darts close up." The major reported.

"Wraith hives are entering extreme Asgard weapons range."

"Have the 304's open fire, the Sol is to only fire forward turrets, one shot at a time, normal intensity." Carter ordered.

The forward group of seven hives and twelve cruisers were hit hard. Streaks of plasma ravaged the hulls of the hives and cruisers. Despite the power of the Asgard plasma weapons only one cruiser was destroyed. The rest continued charging on with holes in their hull and fires across the ship.

"The advanced group is slowing down while the rest it speeding up."

"Prepare a missile strike, all ships, all tubes, Mark eights." Carter ordered. "Let's give these bastards something to chew on."

A minute later hundreds of mark eights left the launch tubes of the 304's and the Sol. They followed the blue/white streams of plasma towards the hives and were under heavy fire from the hives and cruisers. Nearly ninety percent was shot down by darts, cruisers or hives. The rest however struck home. Most of the advanced group was disabled. Seven cruisers were destroyed while the rest showed signs of heavy damage. The hives fared little better, three were broken up and undergoing internal explosions. The rest were missing large chunks of their hull and were also in the process of breaking up.

Meanwhile the main group closed in and the super hives brought their main weaponry in place.

"I'm reading massive power spikes from the super hives."

"Tell the 304's to scatter, call in the reinforcements." Carter ordered.

On cue the 304's left their positions just as the first salvo was fired by the super hives. Moments later the three Asgard task forces jumped in immediately firing their weapons. The Wraith ships were bathed in fire from all sides as Asgard designed energy fire hit the ships.

After most of the first Wraith salvo had missed the 304's or hit the Sol, the Aurora's jumped in. they immediately released a stream of drones which made their way over to the super hives.

The first super hive was quickly shredded to pieces by the combined power of drones and energy weapons. Another super hive was destroyed after nearly a minute of constant assault by drones and plasma.

Now that two of the super hives were destroyed there was some more room for the 304's to make hit and run attacks on the hives and cruisers. Pretty soon cruisers and hives alike started blowing up creating large and dense debris fields.

"Tell Marks to combine turrets one, two and three and target that super hive. Let's see how powerful that option is." Carter ordered.

Moments later a noticeable hum could be heard throughout the ship as capacitors charged to the brim and the targeting systems worked on getting a proper shot at the super hive. This was quite tricky, first the computer needed to calculate a position beyond the shields where the three plasma beams would meet, and then the correct amount of energy was to be used to send the beam towards the super hive. For anyone outside the Sol whom was looking towards the Sol would see a giant ball of light assembling, not unlike the flash of a nuclear detonation. After a second all three beams pulsed and one thick bright white beam shot out towards the super hive.

The beam was so powerful that the hull of the super hive wasn't even slowing it down. The beam hit the hive near its engines and cut a hole straight through the ship, destroying a cruiser and hive that were on the other side before speeding off into the distant space where it eventually lost its power.

The super hive, now showing a massive hole which was still expanding, slowly broke in two, the internal stress being too much for the internal superstructure to handle. As the fight around the ship raged on the ship finally broke in two and after the two parts bumped into each other a few times they both went their own way, destruction.

"Only one super hive, Sierra 2, is remaining. Furthermore there are two hives and two cruisers left." A Major reported.

"Have the Sol take care of that super hive; tell the aurora's to save their drones. Let the rest take care of the hives and cruisers." Carter ordered.

This time Marks, whom was effectively the CO of the Sol elected not to combine the turrets but instead unleash several individual beams at the super hive. The super hive didn't stand a chance as half a dozen beams cut through the ship creating a huge amount of damage which quickly destroyed the ship. After that the remaining Wraith ships didn't stand a chance and were quickly eliminated.

**0722 hours**

**Flag room, BB-305 Sol**

Just as before the battle the commanders of the first alliance fleet were assembled in the flag room. This time they were going over the replays of the battle seeing what could be improved upon. Once they were done that plans for the future campaign was discussed and elaborated upon.

"Okay, I have received orders from the President which were co-signed by the Alliance leadership. Within a few hours special equipment will be arriving from the Midway station through the stargate. Our next goal is to extract the ultimate revenge from the Vanir. We will destroy their home world with Horizon weapons platforms. High command thinks that as soon as the Vanir are either gone or incapacitated the Wraith will have a much harder fight since their advanced power sources are supplied to them by the Vanir."

"My plan is to make a dash straight through Wraith and Vanir territory, inflicting as much as possible damage with just the Sol. The rest of the fleet will advance on the flanks making sure the enemy has to divide its resources. Eventually we will meet up at the Vanir home world Vanaheim. Before we will level the planet we will evacuate several Asgard that had been taken prisoner by the Vanir when they left the Ida galaxy for the Pegasus galaxy. These prisoners include Freya, sister of Freyr, Bragi and Vidar." Carter explained.

"General Carter, I assume you have the required paperwork that goes with such a devastating act. I am more or less surprised that the Aesir council agreed with such an act." Kvasir said.

"The paperwork will arrive when the weapons arrive here as well. I believe General O'Neill and Supreme Commander Thor will deliver them personally." Carter said.

"Look, Kvasir, I understand that you don't like destroying a race, let alone one you have ties with, but, they are directly responsible for the death of over one billion humans on Earth, just to safe their own ass, even though they could have done that another way. I think I can speak for every Tau'ri when I say that we want revenge. I'm sure that the Vanir would exterminate us all if it would give them the chance to survive their degeneration." Caldwell said.

"That is correct. In addition the Alliance needs to show that it is willing to use their full power to ensure its survival, it will give off a signal to our enemies and potential future enemies that if they commit acts of mass murder against sentient beings, they deserve nothing but the death the same, a death penalty. Basically that Vanir have been convicted guilty and sentenced the death penalty." Carter said.

"I would say that the Vanir did not have much of a chance to defend their actions in this trial the alliance council apparently had held." Freyr said.

"We captured that Njord guy during the combat in Atlantis, he's been saying all kinds of things about their motives and such ever since." Carter said.

"Nevertheless, we need to end the Vanir's support to the Wraith, we've got a war back in Milky way and another one that is just a matter of time before it starts. The only reason why the Wraith are still in the fight is because of the Vanir." Ellis said. "Besides, me and my crew want revenge. We all lost someone on the hands of the Wraith, some literally. I know my crew will support this order without a doubt."

"The same goes for the Deadelus and its crew. Even Hermiond lost some of his Tau'ri friends and has been making plans in his spare time for a way to destroy the Vanir." Caldwell added.

"Nearly a quarter of my crew lost their families when the Wraith bombed Ramstein in the opening hours of the occupation." Colonel Reynolds, Commander of the Normandy said with his usual English accent. The Normandy was a ship crewed by people of European descent, primarily German, English and French.

"And I for one do sympathize with you on this matter." Tjolver said. He turned to the other Asgard. "We conveniently forget that when the Vanir left us they too inflicted carnage on our home world Valhalla, and at that time downloading was not as widespread as it is now, we lost millions of souls that day."

"I'm surprised you didn't go after them." Carter said.

"Their attacks left us with a crippled fleet incapable of chasing the Vanir to another galaxy, and fight the Wraith there. By the time we had a fleet large enough the Ancients were overrun and we had forget all about it and decided to move on." Freyr explained.

"Why do we always hear about these things after it would have been useful?" Caldwell asked. "If we'd have known about their nature or even their existence this all might have been prevented."

"There are a lot of things we are not proud of, or that we have simply forgotten. The High Council at the time decided it didn't matter if you'd know about the Vanir since we didn't even know of they'd existed or where they were." Kvasir explained.

"Let's move on beyond this. We can dwell on the past or live in the present and deal with the Vanir and Wraith. They have both made their decisions and their days are numbered. It is just a matter of time before we destroy them and by taking out the Vanir home world we can shorten the war, lower our losses concentrate on the Aschen war and prepare for the Dominion invasion that is bound to come." Carter interjected.

"I agree. We shall await the arrival of Supreme Commander Thor and General O'Neill after which we will continue our campaign." Tjolver said cutting of the other two Asgard.

**November 22**

**Somewhere within Wraith territory**

**Bridge TFS Sol**

The ship was on its third day of its guerilla campaign behind enemy lines. Just now the blue of hyperspace colored the bridge even though the bridge was deep inside the ship itself. Because of the perfect Intel they had already been able to ambush eight Vanir or Wraith battle units without taking as much as a scratch. Now that there was no fleet to command, Carter was on the bridge in her chair awaiting their arrival at the next ambush.

"Time to target?" She asked.

"One minute, twenty five seconds." Marks replied as he checked his console.

"Get everyone at their battle stations, prepare to raise shields as soon as we exit hyperspace and power the Asgard weaponry." Carter ordered.

"Reversion to real space in twenty seconds." Marks said as he started to count down. "Reversing now."

The Sol exited hyperspace and found several Vanir and Wraith warships caught off guard by their arrival.

Carter just took a second to take it all in before she started issuing orders. "Begin gathering targeting data and target the nearest ship, use turrets. Hold off on the 302's."

It took just seconds before the turrets found their targets and started firing bright white beams. Two Wraith and two Vanir cruisers were the first victims, they were soon accompanied by a hive and several Vanir escorts. Within minutes the unfair fight was over and the quartermaster of the Sol could break out the paint to add the silhouettes of the destroyed ships to the Sol's kill list which was getting longer and longer.

"General, all hostile ships have been neutralized." Marks reported.

"Check the debris of the hives for any humans in stasis. The Deadelus recently rescued over fifty humans after they'd destroyed a hive." Carter ordered.

Marks worked on his console for a minute as did several of the bridge crew. "Ma'am, we have located four separate groups of human life signs."

"Does the immediate area have a stable atmosphere?"

"Yes Ma'am, they are all stable though they won't be that way indefinitely."

"Okay, send in marine units to get them out of their and tag them with locater beacons so we can beam them back aboard." Carter said.

Marks issued the orders to the Marine units aboard the ship which quickly gathered for beam out. Within minutes the first evacuees started to arrive in the sick bay. After twenty minutes all humans were saved and the marines were beamed back aboard.

"General, all units are back aboard." A lieutenant reported as Marks was busy decrypting a message they'd just received.

A minute later Marks console beeped as the decryption was completed.

"General Carter, we received a priority one flash message from CINCPEG –Commander in Chief Pegasus- it's for your eyes only." Marks said.

"Send it to my tablet." Carter said as she took her tablet from where it was kept in the side of her chair. Within seconds the message was transferred to the tablet and she quickly entered her passwords to open the message. What she read surprised her. "That's quick." She murmured to herself. "Marks show me the position of alliance ships in the Pegasus galaxy."

Marks quickly put the map of the Pegasus galaxy on the forward view screen. Soon the icons of the various ships and task forces started to appear.

"Prepare to send a message to the following people: Colonel Caldwell aboard the Deadelus, Force Commander Tjolver aboard the Samantha Carter and Commander Labrea aboard the traveler ship Navras. Tell them to use their access code to open file 29/37/43/4C/JQ, clause nine." Carter ordered.

"Would you care to fill me in Ma'am? Marks asked.

"Not yet, open the same file as well and begin what is described in it." Carter responded.

For the next hour Marks was busy using several programs and coordinating the next few steps with the other commanders.

"Ma'am, we're ready." Marks reported.

"Start the open transmission; make it look like an accident." Carter ordered.

The view screen changed into the three bridges of the other ships involved.

"Commanders, the line is now secure, please confirm." Carter started. The plan was to lure the Wraith to the planet Proculus where the ascended ancients could fulfill their part of the plan. Part of the plan was to make the Wraith think there was a major force build up over the planet which would spawn a Wraith assault and leave their lines vulnerable. While the Wraith units attacking Proculus would be destroyed by the ancients, the First Alliance Battle Fleet would attack Vanaheim.

"_The Deadelus is secure."_

"_The Samantha Carter is secure."_

"_The Navras is secure."_

"Very well, as you all know this afternoon the transport fleet will arrive with the garrison divisions for the planet of Proculus. You'll also know that the escorting ships were delayed by our enemies in the Milky Way. The garrison fleet of Proculus, well; it's not the garrison fleet anymore but the sector's rapid response fleet and currently tied up with holding the line against several Vanir units pushing from the core. Therefore all units have to cease movements that will get them further away from Proculus just in case the Wraith decide to attack now."

"_Ma'am, you do know that the last time the Wraith attacked the planet was when their protector was absent, she's there now right?" _Caldwell said.

"_From what the Asgard have been able to conclude from your logs on this planet and its protector we have concluded that ever since we started to transfer peoples to the planet that protection was canceled. Basically it is just a bluff right now." _Tjolver said.

"It is a bluff, but it is one that won't be called anytime soon as long as we won't tell the Wraith about it." Carter said.

"_Ma'am, even if we were to be given the order to make our way to Proculus it would take us nearly two weeks to get there." _Labrea said.

"Four you it would, but the Asgard can be there within two hours and our 304's can be there in a matter of hours as well." Carter responded. Even though the Traveler fleet had been upgraded it was far from being comparable to a 304. It boosted Asgard energy weapons, enhanced shields, hyperdrive and power generators, but because of the state of the ships its capacity was severely limited.

Carter observed the silence for a moment before continuing. "If there is nothing else, we'll commence our planned operations after 48 hours assuming no other orders are given." She received nods from the others and motioned to Marks to cut the feed. "Did they get it?"

"We have detected at least four hacks into the signal, and there may have been over a dozen others, at least one of them should have been Wraith." Marks said.

"Great, send an encrypted signal to all ships in the battle fleet to continue as planned. Vanaheim will be destroyed within 24 hours."

**Proculus**

**21 hours later**

**Jumper 23**

Lieutenant Stavos, formerly of the Traveler ship Navras, made his way towards the next waypoint on his patrol. He had been blessed by the ancestors with the gene that apparently allowed him to operate their technology, making him one of the lucky few. He and his Tau'ri co-pilot were just chit chatting, mostly about girls, and of course sports.

"You know, these patrols couldn't get any more boring. Why do we even need them? Our ground based sensors are more than capable of detecting everything the Jumper can as well." Stavos asked his companion.

"It is so we can maintain a presence up here. It takes a jumper or 302 about four minutes to reach space, not counting the time it takes to suit up and get strapped in."

"It can't take that lo-" Stavos said before he was cut off by an alarm.

"What is it?" the co-pilot asked.

Stavos used his gene to link with the jumper and pushed the source of the alarm on the front screen. "Hyperspace window opening, it is enormous."

"The Sol?"

"Not a chance." Stavos said. Another alarm activated as the first of what would turn out to be many ships exited hyperspace. "By the ancestors."

"Massive Wraith fleet incoming, warn ATC and cloak the ship." The Co-pilot said.

Immediately the jumper cloaked and the ATC was informed, though it wasn't really necessary, they'd had to be blind to have missed that.

The Wraith fleet had exited hyperspace quite a bit away from the planet itself; probably to prevent any potential defenses from blowing them to bits before they could respond, something the Tau'ri were notorious for. After a minute of scanning they organized several squadrons of darts to begin a scouting attack on the defenses. In response several squadrons of 302's were launched from the planet.

"302's have been launched; estimated time to interception is four minutes."

**Flag room, TFS SOL**

**4 minutes away from orbit of Vanaheim**

"General, the entire fleet is present and accounted for. The Vanir defense fleet is forming up over their capitol; estimated time to contact is four minutes."

"Assign targets for every ship, we'll hold nothing back this time, 302's, jumpers, nukes, drones, everything but the Horizons." Carter ordered.

As the fleet made their way over to the Vanir ships they launched 302's, opened missile tubes showing off the dangerous Mark 8 nuclear warheads installed. Energy weapons were readied and energy started to build up in the capacitors, railguns loaded and powered while targeting systems painted the targets.

As the two fleets approached each other they were both scanning each other for any useful information. In the flag room a timer counted down the time left until weapons range was reached. Once the timer read zero, a hailstorm of weapons fire was released by both sides.

**

* * *

Proculus**

The four squadrons of 302's that were up in the air had all painted two targets per fighter. As one they unleashed a hailstorm of missiles towards the darts. It only took a few seconds for the missiles to reach the darts. Once they were in range, the darts opened fire on the incoming missiles and were able to destroy quite a few of them. Nevertheless, enough missiles made it through as to do heavy damage to the Darts.

**

* * *

Vanaheim**

The two storms of plasma, drones, missiles and railgun slugs crossed each other in the middle; seconds later the two storms encountered the shields of their enemies. The Tau'ri suffered little losses, several 302's were unlucky enough to be in the way of a plasma bolt and were incinerated and one Asgard Jackson class ship, this one particularly close to the front lost shields and had to retreat to prevent certain destruction.

The Vanir however suffered horrific losses. First shields were reduced by plasma slamming into them, and in some cases slicing through them. Then the missiles hit, each unleashing their devastating force over a wide area destroying most ships that had lost shields. Right around that time the railguns started to do damage to the smaller ships that so far had survived the onslaught.

After the results of the first salvo were received both fleets started to fire continuously. The Tau'ri and Asgard ships increased speed to spearhead the Vanir forces and hopefully cut them in two.

**

* * *

Proculus**

The two groups of fighters met each other with a thunderous clash. Immediately the fight started to evolve into dogfights between pairs of 302's and groups of darts. Every time a pair of 302's was on the hunt a kill was quick and certain, but when a pair of 302's was the hunted a kill was impossible for every time a dart had a shot that would either damage or destroy a 302, a white force field would stop the shot, despite the 302's not having any shields whatsoever.

Within minutes that darts were dispatched off. However that had been able to give the main force a good look at what was waiting for them. It did not impress them. Beside the strange force fields of the 302's, which they just contributed to innovation of the Tau'ri there was nothing that would distinguish this world from so many others that had been culled the last few months, except for the number of humans on this planet that was. A number not seen in the Pegasus galaxy since the Lantean-Wraith war over ten thousand years ago.

**

* * *

Vanaheim**

The fleet was now reaching the Vanir ships and firing on them at point blank range. The Sol, with the O'Neill's and Aurora's in the center and the rest of the ships on the edge, all firing plasma weapons everywhere they can find a clear line of fire. Now they preferred energy weapons over the nuclear ones so as to spare their own shields and to prevent the destruction of 302's.

Another Asgard ship, this time a Beliskner lost its shields. This time however the ship did not have the time to retreat and was swiftly destroyed by smaller Vanir ships. Also one of the 304's started to have problems with their ZPM and subsequently the shields and had to fall back.

As ship after ship was blown up by Asgard weaponry the fleet got closer to their main objective. Eventually every Vanir ship was destroyed at the cost of two more Jackson's both were able to retreat from the battle and recharge their shields.

As all 302's and jumpers were recalled the 304's and the Sol chose their positions over the Vanir home world. The actual surface of the planet was obscured by lightning storms all across the planet.

**

* * *

Proculus**

The 302's had been forced to return towards the planet to rearm and refuel. Meanwhile, the Wraith had destroyed the few orbital defenses while only suffering minimal losses and were now in the process of taking positions for a culling. On the planet chaos reigned. As soon as people realized that the Wraith were going to cull them they made a dash for the nearest shelter. The local garrison was unable to keep the peace as they were busy preparing defensive positions. They were under no illusions that without any outside help they would be dead within hours.

**

* * *

Vanaheim**

The Tau'ri ships had reached their launch positions.

"_This is General Carter to all Tau'ri ships: initiate nuclear launch sequence."_

As one all 304's and the Sol slowly started turning their top side towards the planet's surface.

"_This is General Carter, Commanding Officer of the Tau'ri Federation Ship Sol, Commander of the First Alliance Battle Fleet, Authentication: Charlie Alpha Foxtrot Kilo Niner, the release of nuclear weapons is now authorized."_

The 304's and Sol opened their launch tube hatches and the mark nine's were clearly visible in the tubes. At the same time a cargo bay door on the bottom of the ships opened to reveal the deadly Horizons.

"_At the authorization of the President of the Tau'ri Federation, and the leadership of the alliance, you may fire at my command."_

"_Fire."_

As one all missiles were launched as well as the horizons. Each missile had its own target in an attempt to destroy as much as possible in the first wave.

**

* * *

Proculus**

Now that the Wraith were in a stable orbit over the planet they launched hundreds of darts, all intent on culling the planet to the last human being. In addition several hives and cruisers fired on defensive positions that could be discovered from space.

As the darts dived through the upper atmosphere they left burning trails behind them. By the time they reached maximum velocity they were accompanied by the plasma fired by the ships in orbit.

**

* * *

Vanaheim**

The Horizon launched by the Sol had as main target the Vanir Capital city which also held the main download facility. As it burned through the atmosphere the first stage fell away as it had expended al its fuel. Not much later the second stage was ejected for the same reason. With seconds left before the warheads would be ejected the computer ran a last check to confirm the targets. As one all Horizons ejected their warheads which all headed for their individual targets, impact only seconds away.

From outer space it seemed as if a star was born so bright were the flashes of the nuclear explosions.

**

* * *

Proculus**

Only several kilometers away from the surface the darts started to slow down so not to fly into the ground. However before they could pull up a barrier formed itself, seemingly consistent of glowing white threads. It destroyed the darts and the weapons fire. It immediately sped upwards towards the Wraith and Vanir fleet in orbit. The higher it got the more black threads appeared, which all seemed to try and destroy the barrier. Black thunderclouds appeared and thunder rained from above. To most it did seem as if the ancestors were fighting a brutal fight. As time progressed more and more black threads disappeared, and some even turned white. Eventually it reached the Fleet in orbit. Hives, cruisers and Vanir ships were shredded everywhere. Not a single ship was left intact and not a single piece of debris was larger than a basketball. It provided a nice display of fireworks.

**

* * *

Vanaheim**

By now the flashes were dissipating and sensors could finally get a good look at what was left of the planet. Nearly the entire planet had been burned by nuclear fire. Oceans had been vaporized by the intense heat and mountains had been flattened only to be replaced by new mountains, the edges of bomb craters. It was suffice to say that the Vanir home world was no more.

**Press room, Atlantis**

**November 23 **

**1435 hours**

"Ladies and Gentlemen, President Hayes of the Tau'ri Federation." The press secretary announced.

All reporters rose as the President walked in and took the stand which showed the seal of the office of the president. After a second the President motioned everyone to sit down.

"This morning at 0945 hours the First Alliance Battle Fleet under the command of General Carter destroyed the Vanir home world Vanahiem." Hayes paused for a second and the press took the chance to ask questions. They were quickly silenced.

"This action was sanctioned by me, the cabinet and the senate. It was also sanctioned by the Alliance Council. The destruction was carried out by a number of 304 class battle cruisers and the Sol. The weapons used were several Horizon weapon platforms and a number of Mark Nine Gatebusters. Scans made after the bombardment show that the entire planet has been devastated. No Vanir has been left alive and most importantly their download facility has been destroyed."

"The decision to destroy the Vanir home world was not made lightly; ultimately we concluded that if the Vanir were removed from the equation in the Wraith war, our losses and the time spent would be much lower. Furthermore, the Vanir killed nearly one billion humans by helping the Wraith just too safe their own hides, they got what was coming to them. It is also good to say that we rescued a number of Aesir that were held hostage."

"I'll take you questions now."

Immediately all reporters jumped up yelling questions.

"Yes, Susan." Hayes said as he pointed to one of the reporters on the first row.

"Mister President, are you also going to authorize the destruction of the Aschen home world?"

"No. at the moment we are not contemplating the destruction of the Aschen home world. The destruction of the Vanir home world was a one-time action." Hayes answered. "George." Hayes said as he pointed at another reporter.

"Mister President, are you going to redeploy the First alliance battle fleet?"

"No, for the moment the First Alliance Battle Fleet will remain in the Pegasus galaxy to combat the threat of the Wraith and remaining Vanir forces. It is General Carter's job to win the war there before the fleet will be moved back towards the Milky Way galaxy to fight the Aschen. In any event a redeployment of the battle fleet needs to be authorized by the alliance military leadership."

"Mister President, earlier you mentioned that the strike also destroyed the Vanir download facility, does this mean that the Vanir are now mortal, or do they have any back up sites?" another reporter asked.

"According to the Asgard and our own intelligence this was the only download site." Hayes answered.

"So basically this is genocide?" the reporter asked.

"Yes, it is. This wasn't decided easily, there were several cabinet meetings dedicated entirely to the subject, as it should be. If there would have been any other way, we would have done it. Unfortunately, the Vanir have made it clear that they will not surrender and as we have seen have no qualms about any human deaths necessary for their survival."

"So why didn't you just give them the cure, we have it in the medical databanks."

"Because we could not locate them after we created the cure. By the time they resurfaced the Wraith had already attacked Earth and we were at war with the Vanir." Hayes said.

"So we would have given the Vanir the cure if we'd have found them?"

"We would have most certainly offered it to them. Of course we'd have some demands as well such as ceasing experiments on humans. If we could have prevented the assault on Earth we would have done it."

"What are your plans for the Aschen war?"

"You all know that for the sake of security I can't comment on the plans for the Aschen war. Please also don't ask questions you know I can't answer."

"What can you tell us about the plans and preparations for the Aschen war?"

"All I can tell you is that our military is hard at work to create the required force necessary for an offensive ground war against the Aschen. Fortunately we have no problems with finding enough manpower for recruitment is up through the roof ever since the Wraith attack on earth."

"And how about our colonies? Is it true that there have been delays?"

"Yes, on average we are half a year behind on schedule, this however doesn't mean the shipyards are not yet working. Most of the delay is located in the civilian sector. Due to the attacks made by the Aschen it is much harder to set up proper civilian facilities which are needed to support a large civilian population."

"How will this impact the war effort?"

"Not by much. As I said, the shipyards are already working and the first ships will be done somewhere next year, as expected. In addition to the shipyards the mining facilities are operational and are now providing over 80 percent of our material needs, taking a huge load of of our trade deficit."

"Can you give us some numbers about the amount of ships being produced with the new shipyards?"

"Again, no for matters of national security. I can tell you that in conjuncture with the colonial fleet, marines and army we have been able to design new transport and troop landing ships reducing our dependence on the colonial fleet for transport of our land units."

"Would you care to elaborate on the new transport ships?"

"A bit yes. The transport ships will be modular. What this means is that we are building a ship that is quite big. It has shields, engines and some mostly defensive weapons. The inside of the ship is mostly empty space. In this we can place modules designed for troop transport. This will also allow us to use these same ships for transporting minerals, civilians and supplies, all that is necessary is a module. Right now the designs call for three versions, each having a different size. There will be a version that can handle 4 modules, a version that can handle 8 modules, and a version that can handle 20 modules. For any more specific details I would like to refer you to the department defense."

"The actual landing ships will also have several versions, from being able to carry about a dozen troops, to being able to carry an entire module, whatever is in them. These ships are partly modeled after the Colonial Raptor design. For the largest of the transport ships you can compare it to a CH-54." Hayes explained.

"Has this anything to do with the nationalization of interplanetary transport?"

"Yes. In order to prevent any possible terrorism from spreading beyond the borders of the Tau'ri Federation and to prevent people and companies from creating their private colonies we have decided to control all the transport in space by means of a government operated transport organization. We wouldn't want the mafia or a multinational to get its own planet they can do with as they please without having to fear the government. So basically we want to prevent any illegal activities to stretch beyond the Tau'ri Federation."

At that time the press secretary walked in and announced that any further questions could be directed to her.


	7. Chapter 7

**AN: sorry for the long delay, I lost some progress on this chapter after I overwrote the wrong copy. Nevertheless, I present to you, the seventh chapter.**

**Of course, special thanks to Rudy Pena for the beta.**

**March 22, 2016**

**Advanced infantry training center, Fort Benning**

**122****nd**** Light Infantry Brigade (independent)**

**Earth**

Colonel Blane made his weekly speech to each company under his command.

"Now you are entering the last week of your advanced infantry training, you must remember that you will become part of the best infantry brigade in the entire regular Tau'ri army. We will be deployed wherever the rest of the army would suffer heavy casualties or could simply not be successful. You will be among the first of the army units to follow the marines during an invasion. We will attack heavily fortified positions, we will fight the enemy in urban terrain, no matter how dug in they are and we will be victorious."

"Trust your fellow soldiers, and have confidence in your officers, they are all experienced soldiers whom have seen combat many times. Once we are done here we will be shipped out to join the eighth army at Terra Nueva close to the Aschen core worlds. From Terra Nuevo we will commence offensive actions against the Aschen. We will go into combat, and we will take casualties. But in the end all that matters is that we win this war and the Tau'ri Federation survives."

"Dismissed."

**April 7**

**Lawson Army Spaceport**

**Fort Benning, Georgia**

As the troops from the 122nd arrived at the spaceport, four large modules awaited them. Each module would carry one of the battalions and the fourth was for the support staff and other passengers that just happened to be traveling to Terra Nuevo.

It took about two hours for the entire brigade to be loaded into the transports. By the time they were done, four what would be called carryalls arrived. These large sorts of helicopters could carry an entire module. The modules were brought up to a medium sized transport ship. Four other modules were already loaded into the ship. They mostly carried military and construction materials for Terra Nuevo. Once the loading was done the ship joined a gathering of about eight other small transport ships and two 304's. Ever since the Lucian alliance ambushed two 304's during the Wraith siege all transport ships within the Milky Way galaxy were to be escorted by warships, this quickly led to a convoy system.

Although simplistic in design not many transport ships were built. This was partly due to advanced technology incorporated in the ships which prevented the Colonials or Free Jaffa from building them for the Tau'ri. The 122nd would join the 8th army at Terra Nuevo and be the final part of the 180.000 men strong army. Terra Nuevo also held a Free Jaffa and Colonial contingent, numbering a total of 80.000 soldiers. The 8th army would be the main land component in the planned May offensive. It would be the first time a force of that size would be committed against the Aschen.

**April 25**

**Aschen Territories Army Group HQ**

**Fort New Ticonderoga, Terra Nuevo**

**May offensive briefing**

General Patraeus, commander of the Aschen Territories Army Group was giving his briefing to the commanders of Tau'ri, Jaffa and Colonial units involved in the planned May offensive. Under his command and involved in the May offensive were the Tau'ri's 8th Army and two expeditionary corps from the Colonials and Jaffa. The Colonial troops were battle hardened troops against the Cylons and even the Wraith and Aschen. The Jaffa forces were not the usual old style warriors that would simply storm whatever they were attacking regardless of the losses; instead they were highly trained by Colonial and Tau'ri advisors.

"General Dale Dye is in command of the 8th Army; he is currently back on Earth for a briefing by the joint chiefs. Therefore I will give this briefing." Patraeus said.

"For this campaign we have two primary goals. The first is an Aschen world relatively close to the Colonial home worlds; it currently is used as a staging ground for attacks on the Colonies. The second primary objective is a major fleet base; it allows the Aschen to recover from their losses within months either by repairing damaged ships or just building new ships. If we take this planet we will not just reduce the attacks on the Colonies and other nearby allied planets, it will also give us an increased ship building capacity, especially for transport ships." Patraeus said.

"Lieutenant General Samyer, you and you're Colonial forces will make the first attack. As soon as two colonial battlestar groups have cleared the orbit of P99-212 your forces will land and overpower the garrison and set up a defense. This action will draw out a response from the Aschen and they will most likely send fleet units from P98-887, the second primary objective."

"As soon as the Aschen fleet leaves for P99-212 a small Tau'ri task force will attack P98-887 and secure orbit. They will later be joined by Free Jaffa units to maintain a presence in orbit. Afterwards the fifth Marine division will be the first to establish a beachhead which will be about fifty miles to the north of the shipyards since any closer and the landing ships would be in range of long range AA sites. As soon as the fifth has landed the 122nd light infantry brigade will be flown in for the purpose of capturing the city known as P98-887A. The marines meanwhile will set up a wide perimeter around the beachhead. Within a day after the first landings the first elements of the first heavy brigade combat team, 2nd armored division will begin to land and make their way towards the main shipyards. Depending on the amount of resistance they may be joined by the 25th mechanized division. The rest of the 8th army will be brought in to subdue the rest of the planet. Because of the large amount of vehicles and supplies required and the small amount of transports we will have to make several trips between Terra Nuevo and P98-887."

"I plan to have the Aschen subdued within 18 days after the start of the ground campaign."

"Are there any questions?"

"Sir, what do we do if the Aschen fleet does not engage my ships at P99-212?" General Samyer asked.

"Even though it is most unlikely that the Aschen won't respond it won't present any change in our plans. The 304's can handle what is in orbit at the moment; it is just a bit easier and quicker when a part is gone."

**Planet New America, near the Aschen sector**

**April 27 2016**

The planet New America was one of the newly colonized planets. Some of the planets were named after the Earth continents and their cities after cities on those continents. This planet was one of the few that didn't yet have its planetary defense systems installed despite being one of the closer planets to the Aschen territory. The massive shipyards had just gone on-line and the mines not far away were already mining mountains of resources. New Washington was one of the eight new cities on the planet; most others were named after other United States cities. There was a small garrison on the planet but it was not large enough to defend all eight cities, the mines and the shipyards. A small Free Jaffa Task Force guarded the planet until a new 304 could come off the production line at Atlantis. The 69th Mechanized Infantry brigade (Formerly Massachusetts National Guard) was on another planet in the system undergoing low-gravity training in preparation of an attack on an Aschen listening outpost. About a hundred thousand civilians already populated the planet and that number was only going to climb as more and more facilities were built. The planet has its own governor, whom also serves as the senator in the Tau'ri senate.

In orbit one Hak'tyl and four advanced Ha'tak guarded the planet. They had a CAP of one Al'kesh and four gliders at all time. First prime Hak'tor was in command of the flotilla. Although he was a loyal follower of Teal'c and Bra'tak neither could prevent him from being stripped of his command and put on a low rank position. The loss of nearly half his fleet was used by the traditionalists to try and back out of the war effort and the alliance. Ever since the formation of the Free Jaffa nation there had been two major political powers, the traditionalists and the progressives, initially there was a third, the Ultra-nationalists but they never gained much political power and were wiped out of after their attacks on Earth.

**Pel'tak, Free Jaffa nation ship Kel'tak**

"First prime." A Jaffa said as he walked up to Hak'tor. "A messenger from Bra'tak arrived by Al'kesh."

"Send him in."

The Jaffa waved over to a guard near the entrance who waved over to another person. Eventually the messenger walked in.

Hak'tor and the messenger shook their hands at the traditional way while saying 'Shel kek Nemraan' – I die free.

"What news do you have?" Hak'tor asked.

"Bra'tak says that he is currently unable to rally enough ships from the reserves to give you a larger command. Perhaps by the end of this month after the May campaign his power may have grown enough to rally the needed support."

"I assume that you mention of the Expeditionary force to the Tau'ri? Who have a high probability of seeing action on either of the two planets in the campaign?" Hak'tor asked.

"Yes, if the battle shows that Tau'ri doctrines are more effective than the more traditionalists' ones the traditionalist will have to admit the Tau'ri are useful and that we need them." The messenger explained.

"I am confident that our troops have been sufficiently trained, I have seen the Tau'ri engaged in combat several times and they always fight hard. I just hope that the commander is up to the task of using the Tau'ri doctrines to their full use." Hak'tor said.

"Do you have a message for me to relay to Bra'tak?"

"Please tell him that the cause comes first, my reputation and pride can wait, they would be hurt if my personal gains would hurt the cause."

"Very well Hak'tor. I hope to see you soon in command of a larger fleet that you have now."

"So do I." Hak'tor whispered as the messenger walked out.

"First prime, long range sensors have detected a wave of warships approaching the sector, they appear to be Aschen in origin."

"Prepare out defenses, alarm the planet and send a warning to the Tau'ri. They are the only ones with ships close by enough to arrive in time." Hak'tor ordered. "Also warn the Brigade on training and tell them to stay low, we can't defend them and the planet at the same time."

"Yes first prime." An alarm started blaring and the lights dimmed. More Jaffa entered the Pel'tak and Deathgliders and al'kesh launched from the motherships. On the planet below the defense troops were alerted and they armed up.

A few minutes later two battle cruisers and eight light cruisers exited hyperspace escorting about a dozen transport ships. The ships were just outside weapons range of the Jaffa ships. Within seconds aschen fighters exited the two battle cruisers and headed for the void between the two fleets. The Deathgliders were already awaiting the Aschen fighters. Unfortunately only one out of four squadrons was equipped with Tau'ri made missiles. Nevertheless the gliders engaged the Aschen fighters and managed to keep them occupied enough for the al'kesh to make it past them.

Meanwhile the Hak'tyl made its way towards the Aschen fleet. It was flanked by the Ha'tak's, two on each side. Green Aschen weapons fire crossed the void just as the Orange Jaffa weapons fire passed in the other direction. Neither side could really get a distinctive advantage. The Al'kesh' tried to harass the transport ships but were held at a distance by a trio of light cruisers.

"Have the Ha'tak's cover us while we concentrate on the nearest battle cruiser."

"First prime, the enemy is landing troops on the surface."

"How are the Al'kesh doing?"

"We have lost two, the other four have damaged one cruiser and destroyed two transports. They are basically unable to continue for much longer."

"Tell them to make their way to the surface and support the Tau'ri ground forces there." Hak'tor said.

The pel'tak shook as Aschen weapons fire struck the shields nearby. Flashes illuminated the immediate area as finally one Aschen cruiser succumbed to the Jaffa weapons fire. Fires raged the hull of the ship as it tried to make a suicide run on the Kel'tak. Fortunately its engines were shot and it exploded far away from the Kel'tak.

"Shields are falling below 60 percent strength." A Jaffa announced.

"What is the status of our Ha'tak?"

"Their shields are at approximately a quarter strength."

"What is the status of our target?"

"It's shields will fail momentarily."

"Wonderful. As soon as their shields are down concentrate on their power plant. Hopefully the following explosions will damage the other ships."

**New America Military control center**

"Colonel, we have Aschen forces zeroing in on the capital, and us. Our troops at the shipyards have already successfully repelled one attack by using some of the weapons meant for one of the ships under construction." A lieutenant reported

"Tell the local troops to dig in around the cities center and the bunkers. Make sure there is at least one area with enough room to land two Carryall transport ships. Try to get as many as possible civilians in the bunker." The Colonel ordered. "How are the other cities doing?"

"We've lost New Boston, the small garrison was overwhelmed and most of the Aschen forces there are already on their way down here. Furthermore two other cities have been capture, New Miami and New Detroit. We received reports from New Miami detailing Aschen eradication groups systematically killing all males above the age of sixteen. The other cities have either not been attacked or have repulsed an attack." The same lieutenant replied.

"What's the state of the gate complex?"

"It's still in our hands, the Aschen briefly tried to take it but failed miserably because of the advanced defenses we placed there. The gate is still connected to the Beta site."

"Good, evacuate as much as possible civilians through the gate until the cycle runs out. Afterwards they can hopefully send relieve forces, otherwise we'll have to dial out again." In case of an attack it was customary to dial the gate to a friendly planet that had sufficient communication and humanitarian facilities. This was to prevent an enemy from dialing in and preventing any escape by stargate.

"Is there already word on any reinforcements?"

"The 69th will be transported here as soon as the Jaffa have secured orbit. Beyond that I do not know. They may be able to send a division from Terra Neuvo but on the other hand, they are preparing for an offensive. The Beta site does have a rapid deployment battalion, but these days they are more deployed than at home." A Captain said. "For now, we're on our own."

"What are our casualties so far?"

"We've lost about 400 soldiers, most either killed or captured presumed dead. However, that's nothing compared to local law enforcement, the Aschen don't care for police, fire fighters or ambulance personnel. About 8000 have been reported killed, some even executed. I can't really give you any numbers on civilian casualties, but considering the eradication groups in New Miami and perhaps other cities, they will be high."

"Sir! The Aschen are retreating from orbit. We can expect the 69th to make their firs landings in two hours. The Jaffa have already sent down some al'kesh and gliders, more will follow."

"Can the mother ships give fire support?"

"Only if you want to destroy the city as well."

"Let's not do that just yet."

**A few hours later**

**2 kilometers outside New Boston**

**LZ Foxtrot**

The first landing ships that made it down were among the smallest, they carried about a platoon infantry each. Four made up the first wave. They quickly secured the landing site before the larger ships landed after which the mechanized units were unloaded. Within an hour the entire first battalion was ready. The troops quickly entered the APC's and they set out for the city of New Boston, where about 900 Aschen soldiers were trying to control the downtown area. Another battalion was unloaded near the shipyards, which were close to New Detroit. The third battalion was deployed in New Washington.

The 69th mostly used Strykers and Bradleys for transport and firepower as well as some Humvee's with added protection. Once they reached the outskirts of the city they could see people looking through the windows. A few children ran outside to greet the soldiers but were quickly called back indoors by their parents.

Once they neared the downtown area they could see the first signs of combat, several buildings were damaged and here and there the bodies of people killed lay to the side of the road. The company spread out over three roads, a company for each one. All around them unfinished buildings ruled the sight. Unfortunately those buildings could all be used to ambush the advancing troops.

They were at a numerological disadvantage, but that was countered by the high training of the Tau'ri soldiers who were in general the best trained in all the known galaxies. The Colonials came close, especially after the second Cylon war where a lot of their troops gained a lot of experience but they lacked the equipment the regular Tau'ri soldier had at its disposal.

"Sir, we've got life signs at eleven O'clock, two blocks down." A Sergeant reported over the company wide communications network.

"They hostile?" the Captain of the company asked.

"Can't say sir. Too much background interference from civvies and dead bodies." The Sergeant replied.

"Okay, this is what we'll do. Second platoon sets up a base of fire at a block away, first platoon goes in close to check it out. Third platoon is to cover our rear, I'm not liking this situation."

The three platoon commanders confirmed the orders and went on to give their soldiers their orders.

As they reached the junction the second platoon took up covering positions. Once they were done first platoon drove up to the building that showed the life signs.

"Sergeant, what do your sensors show you now?" the captain asked.

"It's even vaguer then before, I think the buildings are bouncing the life signs back of forth unlimited. There might be anything waiting for us in there."

"Okay, first platoon, go in hard, use flash bangs and non lethal if you are unsure about the subjects status. Second platoon, cover them if necessary, don't worry about collateral damage to the buildings, they are as strong as hell."

The building in question wasn't finished. Its walls were standing, the floors were laid down but beyond the bare rooms there was nothing. Nothing to hide behind, nothing to take cover behind. The soldiers had no trouble entering the building as the entire front was supposed to be filled by glass, which wasn't placed yet.

It wasn't until the third floor before they made contact with the enemy.

The lead soldier stuck his head out of the staircase and was greeted by a hail of bullets, a poorly aimed hail of bullets that was. The troops quickly swung into action and prepared to take a new peek around the corner, this time with a microscopic camera. The feed was streamed to the platoon commander and to the commander of the first squad, which would take point on invading the third floor. What they saw made them feel like they were back in basic school or playing bad video games.

The hall was filled with twelve Aschen soldiers, all training their weapons at the door, without cover. Opposite to the staircase was another office which would give them a place to take cover in.

"First squad, introduce these noobs to a flash bang and then make your way over to the office opposite to you. There, see if you can flank them, we'll keep them busy." The platoon commander said.

No sooner as the order was given a flash bang was thrown into the hallway blinding and stunning the Aschen soldiers for a few seconds. Enough seconds for the twelve men of the first squad to make their way over to the office and for the second squad to take up positions at the door.

From the office first squad was in they could make their way to another hallway, one that wasn't covered by the Aschen soldiers; from there they made their way around the Aschen soldiers without being noticed.

"Sir, we're in position, you want us to take them down?" the squad leader whispered into his mike.

"Yeah, take them down, we'll stay out of your line of fire, go lethal."

The squad quickly got into place, six on either side of the hallway, the first few crouched down while the last few stood to give all of them a good line of fire. On the command of their commander they all let loose with their weapons, ten M-700's, and two M-249 SAW's cut down the Aschen soldiers within seconds.

First squad as well as seconds squad quickly moved into the hallway to clear all the rooms.

"First squad clear."

"Second squad clear."

"All clear. Check them for Intel."

**Bridge, TFS BB-305 Sol**

**Pegasus galaxy**

**April 27**

"General Carter, the Apollo reports they have deployed the last sensor satellite." Marks reported from his station.

"Bring the grid online please." Carter responded. What they were talking about was their way of scanning the entire Pegasus galaxy. The sensor grid was a series of satellites strategically placed throughout the Pegasus galaxy in order to detect any ship movement.

Marks tapped several keys and the satellites all came to life. The telemetry immediately was downloaded to the Sol and the Midway station.

"Ma'am, we're getting it, it seems good."

"Crosscheck all signals with known positions of our own ships." Carter ordered.

Marks confirmed and typed in some commands. For a minute or so the computer was busy. In the end all friendly units were marked and a list was compiled of all unidentified or hostile contacts.

"Ma'am, it's ready."

"Put it up on the main screen."

The screen changed into a mess of green, yellow and red dots. The green dots were usually spread out although they did resemble something of a front line. The red dots were usually gathered together. They were anywhere but behind the line the green dots made. The yellow dots were interesting. They were contacts the computer couldn't identify. They were either Wraith ships that the computer couldn't get a proper lock on or alien ships which had not been encountered before.

"Can you scan for Wraith super hives?"

"Yes Ma'am, I can try."

The computer took another minute to scan through all the contacts and finally came up with a list of 90 plus percent matches.

"We've got nine potential targets." Marks lifted an eyebrow. "They all seem to be grouped at one place Ma'am."

"Anything else Marks?"

"They appear to be recovering from a hyperspace jump, they might jump soon again."

"Alright, prepare the ship for combat; I want to take them all down. The sooner they are gone the sooner we can join the fleet in the Aschen sector. How far away are we?"

"We're pretty close, about twenty minutes away."

"Set course, raise the 1st fleet and have them make best speed towards the targeted location."

**Twenty minutes later**

The ship exited hyperspace. For a second nothing happened, but then the forward turrets started firing on the nearest super hive. There was only a small escort fleet present, some hives and a bunch of cruisers, nothing to worry about. The F-302 squadrons launched from the ship as well. They formed up and engaged dart units as soon as they got in range.

Though the Sol was powerful it would take some time for her to take down all nine super hives. Nevertheless the first super hive was already drifting out of formation as about a quarter was blown off.

The defensive batteries started targeting the dart squadrons that got through the 302 screen. The less powerful CILS destroying dart after dart that threatened the ship.

The ship performed admirably, all its weapon stations were operating at peak proficiency and the shields were holding out despite the fire that came in from the super hives. Its crew worked effective and efficient and needed little guidance in doing their job making the officers feel obsolete.

Another super hive blew up, this time because the Sol scored a lucky hit on its Vanir power source.

"Colonel, target those Vanir power sources, they cannot replace them and they make for one hell of a bang." Carter ordered.

"Yes ma'am. An Asgard task force is waiting in hyperspace for your instructions." A lieutenant reported.

"Deploy them to the other side of the battle, as soon as Wraith darts reach them, they are to enter hyperspace and emerge on this side of the battle." Carter said.

Seconds later an Asgard task force consisting of two O'Neill's, three Beliskners and three Jacksons exited hyperspace. They opened fire catching the Wraith of guard. A hive and a cruiser were history within seconds. They soon concentrated their fire on a superhive, although less effective they did do substantial damage.

After another twenty minutes several other ships had arrived and the Wraith ships tried to leave. The last superhive left in existence made for the nearest clear spot to enter hyperspace. Unfortunately, Carter saw it and had Marks put a hole through the hyperdrive. After that the superhive was finshed.

"SitRep Marks." Carter ordered.

"Shields at twenty nine percent, minimal damage, eighty percent of fighters survived. The fleet lost no ships though there is quite some damage." Marks reported.

"Okay, I want you to see if the satellite grid has some more targets that look like super hives. I want to have every potential contact checked out before I report that we've destroyed all super hives." Carter ordered.

A few minutes later Marks had the results of his scan. "General, there are three more targets of potential target, but they all number in the twenty five to fifty percent range when it comes down to matches."

"Send a 304 to investigate every result."

"Yes, Ma'am."

**Situation room, Atlantis**

**May 12****th****, 2016**

An emergency session was called for by General Maynard of the Army. All the members were still arriving but the most important person, the President was already there.

"General Maynard, what is it you had to report?" Hayes asked.

"Sir, twelve minutes ago word reached me that the Aschen have deployed Biological or Chemical weapons against the 122nd Light infantry brigade near P98-887A. this is the main city on P98-887. The 122nd was ordered to capture it following a successful invasion of the planet. Four days ago the marines established a secure perimeter and the brigade was brought down. Ever since they've been in constant combat with Aschen defenders. Preliminary reports suggest that about thirty percent of the troops have been infected and may succumb within a matter of days." Maynard reported.

"What are you doing about it right now?" Hayes asked.

"The Nox have promised to send four of their ships which are equipped as hospital ships. They were already standing by and are now en-route to the planet in a hope to find a proper cure before our troops die."

"Is the 122nd the only unit infected?" the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs asked.

"Yes sir. The moment the commander of the 122nd noticed the attack he sent out an alert to all other units which subsequently went into NBC gear." Maynard said.

"What are our options?" Hayes asked.

"Sir." O'Neill said. "since the Sol will be back within three days I would suggest we send the first Alliance Battlefleet to destroy all known biological and chemical production plants within the Aschen domain."

"Why haven't we done that before?"

"Because these plants are located on heavily fortified planets and placed in bunkers deep underground, only a mark nine would be able to destroy them. Any normal fleet would not be able to crack those defenses. There is also one research lab that is located in the middle of a city, we can't nuke it because it would kill millions." O'Neill said.

"And General Carter could crack those defenses?"

"Yes sir."

"And about that lab, is it possible to take it out with conventional missiles? Or perhaps a Special ops team?"

"Intel suggests that the area is saturated with air defense batteries, no missile would be able to get in close. Even so, if we would destroy the building the surrounding area would be deadly, falling debris, never mind the possibility the weapons we tried to destroy might be released. We don't know what type of research they've done there or if the Aschen themselves are immune to it." O'Neill said.

"A ground strike might be possible though. A small team of Delta Force could in theory infiltrate the building and tag the chemicals so that another ship can beam them up. Or they could place high heat incendiary explosives that would burn the chemicals." Maynard said.

"How would you want to get them on the ground? I thought the beaming technology was not undetectable." Hayes said.

"If, for instance, the Odyssey would go in, phased out, they could launch a phased jumper which would be undetectable. All they'd have to do was to de-phase once they are down and keep cloaked and make their way towards the target without getting noticed." O'Neill said.

"How long would it take to prepare such a strike?" Hayes asked.

"A week, the unit would need to train. The jumper would have to be brought aboard the Odyssey and the Odyssey would need to get into position. She can't just jump into orbit of the planet and shift phase. They would be on the alert and they've got an extensive sensor system. The Odyssey would have to drop out at about three days sublight to get in undetected." O'Neill said.

"Okay, get it started, tell Carter she has a new mission after that lab has been destroyed, not before." Hayes said.

"Sir, if I may, I would like to suggest we do more than just destroy their biological and chemical weapons." The Chairman of the joint Chiefs said. "they deployed WMD's against our troops. Our doctrine dictates we respond in kind. Now I don't say we nuke the Aschen into oblivion like we did with the Vanir, but while we're at it we might as well nuke some military bases and such legitimate targets. Hopefully without incurring to many civilian casualties. It might force the Aschen to the negotiation table."

"This would prevent the loss of a lot of troops sir." Maynard said. "Our current estimates suggest we'll lose nearly a million troops, just by invading Aschea prime. Our total death count for the war would be near the ten million. Any chance to force the fight to an early end, with favorable conditions for us of course, would be preferred."

"And don't forget that every day we're stuck fighting the Aschen we waste a day we could be preparing for the coming war with the Dominion." O'Neill said.

"True, modify the orders for General Carter to include the destruction of any military target within range."

**Bridge, TFS Odyssey**

**Aschea Prime**

**May 19, 1900 hours**

Newly promoted General Emerson entered his bridge. He was met by his XO and a Warrant officer he hadn't seen since the second Cylon war. "Warrant Officer Sullivan, are you and the team ready?"

"Yes sir, Snake Doctor and his team are in the jumper and ready to go." Sullivan reported.

"It'll be dark within an hour, tell snake Doc he has a go."

"Yes sir." "Snake Doc, this is Red Cap, you have a go."

"_Copy, we'll maintain radio silence until we reach the ground."_

Soon thereafter the deck chief confirmed that the jumper had phased out and to his knowledge had left the ship.

Twenty minutes later the team came back in. _"Red cap, this is Snake doctor, we've reached the ground and have found transport to the target."_

"Copy that snake doctor, be careful and good luck." Red Cap replied.

Down on the planet the team had found an old and rusty van. Betty bloom's old skills came in handy and the van was quickly running. The team was already familiar with Aschen traffic rules because for once the intelligence they got was correct.

An hour or two later they reached the building. It was one of the largest sky scrapers of the city. The problem was that the building was partly residential. The Aschen had a habit of building things on top of already existing structures making for some strange buildings. Since blowing the building up was out of the question and beaming the stuff up would only alert the Aschen to their presence. Instead it was decided that the team would take the chemicals and stage a small explosion making the Aschen think the stuff was blown up, at least until they investigated closer, but by then the team and Odyssey would be gone.

They entered the building through the front door carrying their own weapons and gear in bags. Because the building was partly residential nobody really noticed them. Once they reached the twenty eight floor they exited the elevator and found a quiet spot to change into their gear. The next floor was a security buffer, there was nothing there except the security cameras. The next floor actually held the research lab. The floor above that one was also a security buffer.

Since detection was not an option the team could not go through either one of the two floors. The only remaining option was to go around, on the outside. They exited the building through a window and used suction pads to climb the building. Once they were on the right floor they cut a hole through the window and entered the lab. There was significant less surveillance there. The team had a look around and quickly found several small canisters that had Aschen toxicity logos on them. They looked around some more to see if there was more and they found some Intel. After that they found a place where they could place the explosives and might make it look like an accident.

Once they exited the building they had little trouble. The night doorman tried to make some conversation but was quickly cut off by an unkindly response from Snake Doctor. They loaded the canisters in the back of the van and set out to where they'd hidden the jumper.

After twenty minutes they still hadn't left the city as they got lost a couple of times. Right around that time the lab exploded. The entire floor seemed to explode and shrapnel was sent flying in every direction. Minutes later an air alarm sounded.

Nearly two and a half hours and a dozen police checkpoints later they were nearly where they left the jumper. Again they came across a check point, this one however was operated by the military. There were about three cars in front of them. They were all searched thoroughly by the soldiers.

"Looks like we're gonna have to shoot our way out of here. Betty bloom, once the shit hits the fan you put your foot down on that pedal and you will not take it off until we reach the jumper, you understand that."

"Yes boss."

"_Red Cap, Red Cap, this is Snake Doctor, we're gonna make a hot exit, stand by to beam us out in case we need an immediate evac."_ Snake Doctor said through a special radio.

"_Copy that Snake Doc, we're standing by."_ Red Cap responded.

They waited patiently for the three other cars to be cleared and waved through. Once it was their turn Betty bloom brought the van up to the stop point indicated by a soldier. The soldier requested his papers and told him that other soldiers would check the back. When two soldiers opened the back of the van they were surprised to say the least. Their lives were ended quickly at the end of two silenced MP5K's. it took a second for the other guards to realize what had happened. Meanwhile Betty bloom put his foot down and the van sped away. By the time the aschen soldiers could bring their weapons to bear they were already gone.

Five minutes later they had ditched the van and had loaded the bio weapons in the jumper, they took off, on their way to the Odyssey in orbit.

"Red cap, red cap, this is Snake Doc, we're liftoff and en-route to the ship, ETA twelve minutes."

"_Copy that Snake Doc, ETA twelve minutes." _

"_Snake Doc, this is Odyssey actual, congratulations to you and your team on the good job and I'll see you once you get back aboard."_

Sometime later the team was back aboard, and Emerson wanted to try just one more thing.

He had the navigator place the odyssey right beside the flagship of the Aschen fleet, practically hugging the hull. At his command the Odyssey phased back into existence and opened a hyperspace window. The hyperspace window ripped away the hull of the largest Aschen Carrier. It opened up a weapons storage locker to space, the munitions that was tossed about exploded, and subsequent explosions detonated waiting fighters and bombers as well as fuel storages.

Eventually the entire port side of the carrier was wrecked beyond recognition and more and more of the ship was consumed by internal fires.

**Flag bridge, TFS Sol**

**1021 hours, May 22**

**Aschen Colony**

General Carter was in the flag bridge commanding the battle that was taking place. Since the Alliance didn't approve of the entire Alliance battlefleet being sent into harm's way the battlefleet was disbanded. Instead the Sol now was part of the first Tau'ri Battlefleet, consisting of the Sol, six BC-304's and four aurora's. The first battelfleet was part of the sixth fleet, assigned to the Aschen Territories army group. The planet they were attacking was only fifteen minutes away from Aschea prime by Aschen hyperdrive.

They were stuck in a pretty tough fight. Eight battleships, seven fleet carriers, three light carriers, and a dozen more capital ships, not counting the dozens of light cruisers, destroyers, frigates, corvettes and gunships.

It was amazing that up until that battle no Tau'ri warship had been lost at the hands of the Aschen, something Carter was intending to keep so. The Colonials had some losses, three battlestars were destroyed in an ambush and about two dozen smaller warships were destroyed, mostly while defending a Colonial outpost. As usual the Free Jaffa had taken the most losses. They did field most of the ships involved.

The holographic representation of the battlespace projected two groups of Tau'ri ships. One was the Sol with four of the 304's charging in through the center. The other group, four Aurora's and two 304's, made their way towards the center from the right flank. They were taking out fighters by the dozens while firing their drones.

The plan was for the two forces to meet up in the center of the enemy fleet and from there make their way over to the planet where the 304's and Sol would commence a limited orbital bombardment with nuclear weapons. The problem however was that the carriers made up the center of the Aschen force, and they were protected by the battleships.

Nevertheless the ships fought their way through the masses of ships and fighters. Space was nearly constantly lit up by explosions and energy fire. Initially no less than five battleships had concentrated their fire on the Sol. The Sol was an unknown for the Aschen though they had heard about a new type of Tau'ri warship unmatched by any other ship known to them. They also knew that that warship was deployed to another theater of war where they were fighting a much more powerful enemy and would be there for a long while.

So when they encountered not a force of Jaffa or Colonial ships but Tau'ri ships with the newest ship they were scared. One 304 alone was deadly enough to them, let alone a ship so much times more powerful than a regular 304. They threw everything they had at it, assuming that everything has its limits and that, if enough firepower would be brought to bear on it she'd be history soon enough. Besides, an alarm was already sent out to Aschea prime, and a sizable fleet was already underway.

What troubled them was the rate with which the Tau'ri were working their way through the Aschen ships. At the current rate they'd be finished in a little over ten minutes. The sol had fought its way through all the escorts it arrived at the first battleship. Its most powerful weapon was deployed and in one shot, the battleship was hollowed out from bow to stern. Surprisingly the ship didn't explode, nor did it break apart. It just drifted away, its core incinerated before it could blow up, so powerful was the beam.

The Aschen commanders were scared. A perfectly fine battleship was taken out with a single shot while the ship that fired it, the Sol, had no damage whatsoever despite the enormous bombardment she was subject to. But there was no time for the Aschen commanders to be scared. The Tau'ri ships were bearing down on them and destroyed everything that came in their path. They knew what they were after, shortly after the Odyssey left Aschea prime a communiqué was sent out to every commander telling them about the Tau'ri going after the biological weapons.

Now already the Aschen leadership realized they had made a mistake by using biological weapons against Tau'ri forces. The reprisals were hard, the destruction of a carrier in orbit of their capital world had send ripples of shock throughout the Aschen domain. People were scared and it seemed as if no amount of weapons or ships could hold the Tau'ri back. The support for war was lessening more and more while the demand for peace was growing. The civilians began to lose their sense of superiority to the other races of the galaxy now that they were being beaten by a race, from a planet that the last time they'd heard of them were nothing more than savages, primitives, vaguely connected to them.

Anyways, back to the fight. The Sol was just done skinning the fourth battleship, the ship was hit dead center and broke in two pieces only minutes after. Two of the Aurora's were busy chasing down three carriers that tried to make a break for it. The Aschen forces were systematically eradicated, the 304's took care of the heavy cruisers and anything smaller, while the Aurora's and the Sol took care of the carriers and battleships. No ship, not even a fighter escaped the Tau'ri's blue-white fingers of death.

Eventually the Aschen fleet was decimated. The Sol took up a position over the known weapons lab and launched a mark nine nuke. Several drones escorted the missile down towards the planet to ensure its safe arrival. In the meantime the 304's used all kinds of ordnance on military targets as well as known industrial areas.

This was total war and the only thing they wouldn't do was deliberately target civilian targets.

For the next few minutes they were busy recovering shot down pilots and trapped personnel from both sides. But eventually they had to leave. Just as the 304's and aurora's entered hyperspace the Aschen relieve fleet arrived. The Sol stayed behind for a bit longer, just to show them the power she had. Two carriers and a battleship were gone before the Sol joined its comrades in hyperspace, en-route to the Colonial colony of Caprica.

**Orbit of Caprica**

**1225 hours**

The Tau'ri fleet exited hyperspace just outside the security perimeter of Caprica. They were quickly greeted by the colonial admiral of the Fleet, Admiral Nagala.

"Admiral, thank you for your welcome." Carter replied after she was welcomed by Nagala.

"_General, if I may be so blunt, what are you doing here?"_

"One of my Aurora's suffered some structural damage and I want it repaired before we go into battle again, besides, we've expanded a bit more munitions than I wanted and I thought we could use the stargate to ship in some additional munitions."

"_Very well, you can dock your ships at the Pia enchorage, and drydock 238 is available for your Aurora. There is a stargate opening at 2200 hours this evening, I suggest you contact your command to have them send whatever you need."_

"Thank you Admiral, we'll be docking within half an hour."

"_General, on more thing." _Nagala said. "_Is there a chance you could give me a tour?"_

"Sure thing sir. You can come by whenever you have the time. I'm planning on leaving in three days."

"_Thank you General, have a nice day."_

**Aschen war council**

**Two days later**

**Aschea prime, Government bunker**

The Aschen war council consisted of a few politicians, the prime minister, the secretary of defense, state, interior and intelligence. In addition they had the option of calling in help from 'experts'. It was the war council that had started the war, they declared that a number of nearby worlds were ripe for annexation by the Aschen. The military had objected and showed information obtained which laid out the probable responses the Tau'ri and Colonials would give. The minister of intelligence in response brought up a dozen of his 'experts', which all said that the Tau'ri would not respond, nor that they would object. Four days later the council declared that the worlds should be annexed. The highest military commander objected, as did his staff. That afternoon they were all in jail, two days later they were executed for betrayal.

Both sides were right. The Tau'ri were too busy fighting the Wraith to even consider fighting the Aschen, if it weren't for their attack on the ships sent to the planet Cau where the Ticonderoga was the Tau'ri wouldn't have bothered, not until the end of the Wraith war. Now the Aschen were part of an exclusive group made up by the Goa'uld, Milky way replicators, Pegasus replicators, Wraith, Vanir and the Lucien alliance, all had been subject to the wrath unleashed by the Tau'ri after they angered them.

The Aschen were overconfident by their superiority complex and many victories over other planets. The fact that ever since they threw out the Goa'uld they were never defeated also led to their superiority complex, 'cos, if not even gods could subjugate them, nobody could.

"Secretary of Defense, what made the most recent defeat possible?" the prime minister asked.

"The first battleship to be destroyed carried the fleet's commander. Its destruction caused confusion with the other commanders and their incompetence led to their ships being destroyed." The SecDef said. "The problem with this war against the Tau'ri is the gross incompetence of our commanders. We have given them the best ships and best soldiers. Our orders are clear and the enemy is badly motivated and badly equipped. Our own intelligence confirmed that half their planet was destroyed by an inter galactic enemy which they are fighting right now. All in all they cannot have that much ships here. These colonial dogs and jaffa slaves are the ones fighting. During the time of the Goa'uld we killed thousands of jaffa every day and we won the war."

"So you destroy their homeworld." The secretary of state said. "You admitted it yourself during an earlier meeting. The Tau'ri are concentrated on their homeworld, take it out and they will lose their will and chance to fight."

"That sounds great, why haven't we done that before?" the prime minister asked.

"Because the military objected it all the way, they say that we don't have enough ships to pull it off, such a thing would only inflame their allies." The SecDef said.

"Well it's not like they aren't already inflamed, why don't we go and bomb the hell out of Earth." The Secretary of state suggested.

"I second that motion and I suggest we do it soon. Our intel suggests that the newest Tau'ri warship, the S.O.L. is with the Colonial fleet undergoing repairs for damage taken during the most recent battle." The secretary of intelligence said.

"What does that even stand for, S.O.L.?" the prime minister asked.

"Our intel suggests that it is some kind of obscene abbreviation for their women." The SecDef said chuckling. All present chuckled at his statement, of course they were all old men over sixty years old.

"Let's call in the chairman of the chiefs, he'll be responsible for the mission, I have full confidence in him." The prime minister said. The chairman, the eight chairman in three months, was a cousin of the prime minister and worked himself up through the ranks with desk jobs.

"He is currently unavailable, he got stuck in a command bunker which was sent into lockdown by a false alarm. They are still attempting to dig him out." The SecDef said.

"Then bring in his second in command." The secretary of state said angrily.

Ten minutes later a general was brought in. The man walked with a limp as he lost a leg during one of the first attack made by Tau'ri troops. He was not that easily persuaded to throw away lives and accept lies to cover for politicians.

"General, you are to assemble a fleet and attack the Tau'ri homeworld. The plan has already been devised." The prime minister said as the SecDef handed a form to the general. "Considering that the main fleet of the Tau'ri is engaged with another hostile power and the rest has been spotted at the Colonial home world. Now is the time, strike now and destroy their homeworld. Those are your orders. Any questions?"

The general looked confused. After a minute he only had one question. "Who's side are you on?" with that he walked out. He went straight up to ground level. From there he had his driver take him to the nearest divisional HQ.

An hour later a company of tanks rolled onto the grounds of the bunker. A general led a company of soldiers down into the complex. A Coup had started.

**AN: Well, that ought to be fun!**

**dont for get to leave a review!**


	8. Chapter 8

**AN: for this chapter I have something different planned. I will introduce some events that I want to skip and address them in excerpts from biographies of some of those involved in them. I actually wanted to have this part up by Christmas, but needless to say that didn't happen. Anyways I wish all of you a belated happy new year and I hope you've all had a great time with the holidays. **

From the biography of General Jack O'Neill: 'For Crying out loud!'.

_At space command we were surprised to say the least. One single Aschen warship exited hyperspace over Caprica saying that the Aschen confederacy wanted to surrender. At first we didn't believe it. But after some interrogation of the crew and its officers we understood. Not much later the Sol contacted us and told us that the Aschen had surrendered and had given our officers the ability to inspect and destroy the biological weapons. That same day a cease fire was convened. Combat ceased that night and Aschen soldiers were interned into POW camps. A week later I was aboard the Sol when she arrived at Aschea prime to sign the formal surrender._

From the biography of General Samantha Carter-O'Neill: 'Astrophysics & Deep space telemetry'.

_The surrender was surreal. It reminded me of the Japanese surrender on one of our battleships in the bay of Tokyo. The terms we imposed on them were harsh. Their military was to be disbanded, a war crimes tribunal would be convened to trial all those who had wronged. Furthermore all territories captured by allied forces were turned over to those who captured them. Planets that were annexed by the Aschen were released and those that still had a indigenous population were given support with rebuilding. All other planets that were annexed after a to be determined date would also be evacuated and turned over to alliance control. The rest of the Aschen domain would be placed under alliance supervision, the government disbanded and an alliance appointed council would govern the planet. In the end I think that we could just have taken out the terms we gave the Japanese and just change Japan into Aschen. _

_After the war I was transferred to R&D again. It was great working with the Alterans, I also did a lot of work with Rodney, it was nice working with him again. He had changed a lot since he was assigned to work with Janus. We made several very important discoveries and created new possibilities not previously thought of. We finally improved the Arcturus project, we perfected the jumpgate system the Odyssey had designed during its time in the Ori galaxy and we created a new and better stargate. One of the most revolutionary changes that was incorporated in this stargate was the creation of a new designation system. The first part was still the same, six points in space with a seventh for the place of origin, but now it was possible to number or name a gate so that a specific gate on a planet could be dialed. Also important was that more than one gate could be active on the same planet. This interested the army, now they could bring in massive amounts of troops by gate within a reasonable timeframe. The fact that the gates were larger also allowed for the heavier vehicles to be transported by gate._

_The jumpgates were scarce; the things were powered by ZPM's since the Arcturus generator was dangerous. We made the arcturus generator work, but it was not very stable and could not be deployed on most warships. Instead they were used to power the four new ZPM facilities. The name: ZPM facility is misleading, they were used to create more then ZPM's, also drones and other ancient equipment was created there._

_Throughout that period we were constantly preparing for a new war. The Alliance-Dominion war was sure to come and we would need some serious firepower if we wanted to survive it. As a precaution an expedition was sent far away in order to preserve the human race. Fifty thousand people left Earth to an unknown location. All we knew was that it was far away and not in the path of the Dominion destruction. Another project involved sending twelve new exploration cruisers to the neighboring galaxies in the local group. Two ships were sent to the Andromeda galaxy since it was one of the two large galaxies in the local cluster. Their mission was to find potential allies, not to find enemies._

_Secrecy was our biggest enemy. The military budget in percentage was the biggest ever since world war two but even so we had restrictions on what we could do. Our forces were still expanding massively and so were our colonies. The fact that a lot of more primitive people wanted to come to our worlds only for our luxury and protection this caused our population to grow a lot. The plus side of this was that we could justify the massive military spending on increasing our defenses and fleet. Remember that when the Wraith first attacked Earth we only had a handful operational battle cruisers and we depended on our allies and a bluff to survive. Fortunately our economy had a lot of room to expand. New markets were found in the Free Jaffa nation and the twelve colonies, a conservative guess estimated that nearly eighty billion new potential consumers came on the market. Back home there was a lot to do as well. The destruction caused by the Wraith had to be repaired and new technologies were released to the public, creating several completely new markets._

_After nearly 5000 years the galaxy finally seemed to be at peace. But soon the Lucien alliance became more active, they were not just a pirate group anymore, they managed to get themselves established as a galactic power. Fortunately they dropped most of their pirate activities. The Free Jaffa struggled with the peace and freedom they had. The Traditionalists party stirred up a lot of trouble. They advocated the old ways and tried to reestablish a system lord type rule. Teal'c and Bra'tac were the leaders of the Free Jaffa and the Progressive party. They already managed to reform the military and economy. They mostly tried to go the same route Earth had taken over a hundred years ago. _

**Free Jaffa Council Chambers**

**Some years after the Aschen war's end**

Yat'Yir, the leader of the Jaffa's Traditionalists party was on a rant again, one he had held every week for over half a year already. He talked about the old ways and how the new ways and in particular the Tau'ri had poisoned their minds. Especially that of their young's, instead of training for their duty in the Free Jaffa Army they were playing video games or watching movies. The girls, who would have to stay at home to keep the house clean, now went to school to get an education, and not one in housekeeping. They now competed with men for the same jobs; one of the few places still off limits to females was the military.

"And to use one of their phrases, the bottom line is, that the Tau'ri are responsible for everything. All that has happened to us can be traced back to them. The Wraith, the Aschen and now these Dominions about whom we only to take the word of the Tau'ri. All these reforms, you Teal'c of Chulak pushed through this council with false and empty promises are all from the Tau'ri. You are their lapdog, and they want you to submit the Jaffa Nation to them, to make us a puppet."

Teal'c stood up from his seat to make his appeal to the members. He calmly strolled to the center of the chambers, his hand behind his back. "My fellow Jaffa. I understand that progress is scary, I myself was too before I lived with the Tau'ri for a number of years. I have never made it a secret that I admire the Tau'ri way of doing things and I honestly feel that their methods are much, much better than those of the Goa'uld. It is because of their methods and courage that we are free today." Now his voice grew louder." But do not for a moment think that I sell out our nation to them. My first and foremost priority, as well as my loyalty lies with the Free Jaffa. When Yat'Yir speaks of the Tau'ri he talks about their failures and all the misery they have caused, but he says nothing on how the Tau'ri saved the galaxy countless times. They defeated the replicators several times; they annihilated the Wraith and forced the Aschen into submission basically preventing them from becoming a threat again."

"These new ways Yat'Yir talks about have done nothing but good things for us. Our economy has grown tremendously allowing for an increased military. Our armies are stronger than ever, our fleets are the most numerous in the galaxy making up for their technological inferiority, something the Tau'ri are helping us with as well. This planet as well as many others is protected by defenses the Goa'uld could only dream off. Together with our alliance allies we have set up a galaxy wide surveillance system capable of detecting any and all ship movements. This has helped us track down numerous Lucian Alliance strike groups and destroy them, now they are a more peaceful power actually trying to participate in galactic politics."

"The Dominion are a threat to us all. We may not have noticed it just yet but they are. All intelligence we have on them suggests they will not negotiate, only destroy. You have all seen the information the Odyssey has provided to the alliance. The enemy is coming and they have a set plan and fear no casualties to complete that same plan. As far as we know their numbers are so large, they might as well have been infinite. Over the last years the Tau'ri as well as the Colonials and Asgard have allowed our best and brightest to study at their academies giving us great insight in new technologies. The overall power of a standard Ha'tak has tripled since the end of the Goa'uld reign. The Tau'ri have put plans into motion to ensure the survival of all, to defeat the Dominion seems impossible, and for the moment it is. All we can do is hold them off, create enough defenses to make sure no planet is lost and hope that in the meantime someone can find a way to rid ourselves of the Dominion."

"Even now, the Tau'ri are preparing to send out two of their battleships squadrons, that is ten BB-305's to the Ori galaxy, in an attempt to hold the line there. In a year their force will be ready and they have asked us to participate. Now I hear you thinking, why us and not the other great powers? It's simple, according to the plans the Colonials will be among the first to be hit. And the Asgard will have to deal with their own Dominion fleet. We are so spread out that it is nearly impossible for the Dominion to destroy us quickly; our war capacity is protected and is transferred to safer planets as we speak."

"Yat'Yir, what do you say? Do you not wish to protect the free Jaffa with all your might, or do you merely wish to protect your power in the political domain?"

With that Teal'c sat down as a red faced Yat'Yir stood up. "Teal'c, if you and your friends wish to send some ships to the Tau'ri I suggest you send your own ships."

"Is that your consent to send part of the Free Jaffa Fleet with the Tau'ri's fleet to the Ori galaxy?"

"As long as you make sure those ships are from your faction, yes." Yat'Yir replied. It showed just how divided the Jaffa leadership was. One could almost say each party was trying to get as many credits they could spend on whatever they thought to be good.

With that the meeting was over and everyone left for their personal chambers. Teal'c however stayed behind with Ishta, Rak'nor and Ba'tac to discuss several pressing matters. The problem was that, as long as the Jaffa were winning nobody would complain, but the moment the Jaffa suffered a defeat, the progressives were blamed.

From the biography of General Hank Landry: 'four stars with the weight of a Galaxy on my shoulders.'

_Preparing all Tau'ri Milky Way forces for a galaxy wide incursion by a foe like the Dominion is not easy. Having to coordinate with the Alliance is making it hell. When Jack first came with the plan to send two of my three battleship squadrons to the Ori galaxy I was surprised and against it. There was a big chance those ten ships would never return again and if that were to happen I would have nothing to hold the line with. But as Jack explained the plan to me in more detail it started to make sense. We figured that as long as the Dominion were fighting in the Ori galaxy they would not invade our galactic cluster. So sending ships to help the Ori would actually increase the time we'd have to prepare for their inevitable incursion._

_That time would be used to its full advantage; the colonials needed time to upgrade their home world defenses and our shipyards were finally getting up to speed. Nearly a dozen produced all kinds of ships in ever increasing numbers. Sheppard of PEGCOM also needed time to prepare his defenses there for the Dominion fleet that would invade the Pegasus galaxy. The joint chiefs decided that, if they could clear the Pegasus galaxy of Dominion force, more resources could be concentrated on the Milky Way galaxy. High command also predicted that after several years of fighting they could bring the Dominion assault to a standstill, though that standstill would mean a loss of about a third of the galaxy, including the Colonies, the Cau system and the Aschen territories._

_Losing the colonies or the Aschen territories was unacceptable. The Cau system was actually preferred to be left behind enemy lines. The defenses Janus had put up there would also protect the system against any Dominion attack. The entrance was heavily fortified and a small shipyard was built to produce a special kind of ship. These were ships equipped with the most advanced stealth systems known to man, including the phase shifting tech. __T__hey were supposed to conduct a kind of submarine warfare behind the Dominion lines. The ship was classified as a Littoral Combat ship (LCS-306). It had the ability to gather intel, drop of special forces and patrol border regions. In addition to that they could work in wolf packs, using their three Asgard beam weapons to raid supply lines._

_At MW-COM we had no idea how to defend the Aschen territories or the Colonies. The Aschen territories were to spread out to defend properly and while the colonies lay close to each other the colonials do not have enough firepower to really hold back a Dominion fleet. The best thing would be if we could use Asgard tech to defend the system, but because of the original treaty we had with them we couldn't. So we found a way to circumvent it. The treaty does not prevent us from defending our outposts, wherever they might be. So we made another treaty with the Colonials to create an auxiliary fleet base at the colonies. Such a base would need all the appropriate defenses meaning Asgard defense satellites and the like. We even managed to find an unused ancient chair and installed a couple of drone launchers on Caprica._

_When I asked General Carter if she could find a way to increase our defenses she quickly came to the conclusion such a thing was impossible._

From the biography of General Samantha Carter-O'Neill: 'Astrophysics & Deep space telemetry'.

_When General Landry wanted a way to increase our defenses I couldn't give him a satisfactory answer. But he got me thinking. Basically what we needed was a 305, without all the extra bells and whistles. So I got together with some of the designers of the 305 and we started stripping away all non essential systems. We redesigned the power grid to work on four mark 4 naquadah generators. What we ended up with was a sort of platform; a satellite packed with turrets for CILS's and of course Asgard plasma energy weapons. It was equipped with a shield about as strong as that of the Sol, only a sub light engine for course corrections and position changes. A crew of about eighty officers and enlisted personnel would operate the system. The Multiple Batteries Defense Platform (MBDP-307) had a cost of about a fifth of a Sol class ship and a construction time of ninety days with a potential firepower of about three quarters of what the Sol carried. Remarkable was that it carried no railguns nor had any missile launchers. It did have a transporter array and a small armory filled with mark ten tactical nuclear warheads._

_A few months before the Ori expedition I received my third star and got command of all military research projects. It gave me an enormous pile of paperwork despite the fact that we designed an electronic notepad as thin as a sheet of paper and capable of a lot more than normal paper. I managed to get someone to do all the paperwork for me giving me some time to work on some projects. They usually involved Janus or McKay, or both. Our scientific knowledge had really grown since disclosure of the stargate. A whole new way of thinking allowed for inventions not previously thought off. Now that everyone knew of the possibilities and the technology we had the civilians wanted it too, so we had to rework the technology to make it safe for the normal user. It was quite a task and now I realize how difficult it was for the Asgard to lend us technology such as the transporter systems. The potential for abuse was huge. Eventually we took the old securities the Asgard had put in place and added a whole lot more and released it under semi-governmental control._

From the biography of General Jack O'Neill: 'For Crying out loud!'.

_June 12__th__, 2021 marked the day the fleet left for the Ori galaxy. We used a jump gate near the center of the galaxy to meet the required power demands for a jump that far. Ten 305's, half the fleet made up the group, also twelve 304s and three LCS's. Also two of the largest transport ships came along carrying supplies, repair materials, four new stargate, two jump gates and four MBDP's. This all was sent to a location known to be watched by the Ori followers. Despite Teal'c's best tries he only could get four hak'tyl freed from the Jaffa fleet. These four ships also joined the fleet._

_I put my only commander with the right rank and experience to lead the group. Lieutenant-General Emerson led the first expeditionary fleet to the Ori galaxy from the flag bridge on the Sol. The president had already wished them luck and I was there to do the same aboard another 305. It was hard to send so many so far away into harm's way with no way to support them. Three days earlier the alliance leadership had revealed the coming war and the expedition. Hectic followed and people were mad, fortunately the leadership of all political parties were already told way in advance. Few people opposed the plans for an expended military once they were told what happened in a galaxy far, far away, but was coming closer every day. A reminder to the way the IOA operated helped smooth things over. Nobody wanted another attack on earth because politicians stood in the way to get some votes in the short run._

**Near the center of the Galaxy**

The jumpgate was located near one of the larger black holes the center counted. All ships had their shields at full power to protect themselves from the effects of the black hole. All 31 ships were ready and awaiting the final order from the president back at Earth. Aboard the Mars, the fourth 305 built General O'Neill was awaiting the confirmation from the president. He stared out of a window that showed the entire fleet, deeply in thought. A Sergeant approached him.

"General O'Neill, the message has come; the president gives it a go."

"Alright, thank you Walter. I'll be up on the bridge in a minute."

"Yes sir." Walter Harriman replied before he turned around to return to the bridge. Walter was the personal aid to General O'Neill. General Landry couldn't really complain about it because he got Amelia Banks from the Atlantis expedition.

A minute later he returned to the bridge. A somewhat distorted holographic field showed the fleet's positions. "Put me through to the Sol."

"General Emerson, you know I don't take long to finish my speeches so all I want to say is good luck and kick some ass."

"_Yes sir, thank you sir. We won't let you down."_ Emerson replied.

General Emerson stood tall in the Flag Bridge of the Sol. He was proud of everyone under his command, from the Battleship squadron commanders down to the lowest cook and technician. For the last year they had trained intensely to operate on their own and in his opinion it had paid off.

"Set condition one throughout the fleet, prepare for immediate battle the moment we finish the jump." He wasn't going to take any chances, it wouldn't be the first time he'd been ambushed the moment he exited a jump, either FTL or hyperdrive.

A single warning sound alerted the crew to general quarters. A minute later all ships had reported ready.

"All ships report ready sir."

"Very well. Instruct all ships to get into formation for the FTL jump, activate the jumpgate, punch in the coordinates and power the jumpgate."

A few minutes later the Sol moved into position and with a bright light it disappeared. The Jupiter was second and the rest of the fleet followed soon. Within five minutes all ships had disappeared, the Mars, the only remaining ship turned around to clear the interference of the black hole and eventually set course for Caprica, where it was stationed.

**Entry point, Ori galaxy**

"General, all ships present and accounted for."

"Great. Scan for the probe that was left behind by Tomin."

"Yes sir." The man used his scanners to find the probe. "Sir, I have found the probe, but you're not gonna like it. It's destroyed."

"Damn. Okay, we know where the Ori had their strongholds before we left, have the 306's scout those planets and see if there is anything left. Tell them not to engage but instead report back to us."

His orders were immediately carried out.

Six hours later the first of three LCS's reported in. it was nothing good. The planet that once housed a quarter of a billion souls was destroyed, not a single man women or child was left alive. There was an enormous amount of destroyed ships in orbit. This and all the weapons radiation flying around was a testament to the intense battle the Ori had put up for this planet. Over two thousand Dominion ships were counted as being destroyed, from corvettes to battleships, all one big mess. On the other hand over a hundred Ori warships were found destroyed; at least that they could count.

The second LCS reported the same, the planet was wiped out and a great battle had taken place in orbit. This time they also found signs of land combat suggesting that the planet wasn't simply bombarded into oblivion but that the Dominion had to fight for it. Perhaps it was because of city or planetary shields preventing the orbital extermination or perhaps for some other reason.

A few hours later the third reported in and had better news, albeit not much better. The same planet as where the Odyssey spent its time during the time they were in the Ori galaxy was under attack by a sizable force of Dominion battle groups. The Ori forces were holding on but barely. Each time a group of Dominion ships would advance and either be destroyed or forced to retreat. The Ori were barely holding out against the waves of warships. The once so many shipyards in orbit of the planet were mostly destroyed by previous attacks. In fact, most of the planet was bombarded and only a few million people remained to live on the planet, the rest was either dead or evacuated, mostly the former. Most of the cities on the planet were burning.

"Colonel Cadman, put the fleet on alert, we're going in as fast as we can." Emerson said to the marine colonel. "Tell the two LCS's to get back here ASAP and protect the cargo ships, we may need them later. The other LCS is to remain there and observe the situation and attempt to contact the defenders and inform them of our existence in the galaxy and tell them we'll be arriving quickly. Have the Hak'tyl remain behind; they'll only slow us down."

"Yes sir, estimated time of arrival forty eight minutes." Cadman replied.

"Very well have the fleet leave the moment their all ready."

Less than a minute later the fleet was in hyperspace en route to the first real battle between the Tau'ri and the Dominion.

"Sir we're five minutes away. The latest telemetry shows that the Ori lines are nearly broken, it won't take much to break them."

"Can they hold out until we arrive?" Emerson asked.

"Perhaps, another wave is advancing and will reach the Ori lines before we do."

"I want a slight change in hyperspace vectors; I want to exit hyperspace behind the Ori attack wave. I want the battleships spread out evenly along the line and the 304's to fill in the gaps. I also want a coordinated hyperspace exit; I want it timed within the seconds."

"Yes sir."

A little over five minutes later the fleet exited hyperspace. Only a dozen or so Ori warships were left defending the planet. The Dominion maintained a proper single line formation. Not expecting an attack from the rear, power was diverted from the aft shields to the forward shields to meet the demands there. So when the Tau'ri ships exited hyperspace behind them they were caught with their pants down. Two Dominion battle cruisers, the heaviest ship that was normally fielded by the Dominion on regular attacks were destroyed. Also four other cruisers were destroyed as well as a dozen or so destroyers and frigates. The Tau'ri ships pushed on towards the Ori lines cutting through the Dominion lines like a knife through butter. Once they were done no Dominion ship was left.

The fleet lined up with the Ori ships in wait for the next Dominion assault wave. This time fighters and F-302B's (Bomber Variant) were launched.

"This is Lieutenant General Emerson aboard the Tau'ri Federation ship Sol to the Ori command, please come in."

They waited a minute and finally something came back. The line was bad and constantly crackled. _"Emerson… is Tomin… thank… evacuating… sending… coordinates…"_

"Can someone clear that up?" Emerson asked.

"Sir, we're receiving an encoded transmission from a man called Tomin. It has coordinates to another planet nearby, and information about an evacuation fleet that will leave momentarily from the planet. He asks us to cover that fleet and then join him on the other planet." Cadman said.

"Does it give actual course the evac fleet is going to take?"

"Yes, it gives an approximate course depending on danger of course."

"Take measures to ensure the safety of that course." Emerson ordered. This only meant that some 304's got repositioned, anything more would attract too much attention.

About five minutes later a new wave came in. this one had nearly forty capital ships and about fifty to sixty escorts. Though a large and mighty fleet it was by no means a rare occurrence in Dominion warfare. On occasion the Dominion would send tens of thousands warships into a single battle. For the dominion numbers were no problem, and they were usually on their side.

Though the size of the fleet no Tau'ri ship should be lost, some ships would sustain damage but it would be more then possible to end this fight without any losses and only damage. It was a long standing rule that when a ship was almost lost it would be pulled back, it was easier to repair a ship then to build an entire new ship and train a new crew. They would retreat to fight another day.

At Emerson's command the fighters and bombers engaged their Dominion counterparts. The fighters launched two missile volleys before clashing into the Dominion formations engaging them in dogfights. The bombers stayed behind the fighters so they could clear a path for them. Once they got through the fighter warzone they acquired their targets. In return the Dominion warships fired their anti aircraft weapons. The first few bombers were shot down, but they regrouped. Once they had determined the responses the Dominion crews would make they were able to make their way through the storm of plasma that was supposed to destroy them. All in all half a dozen ships were destroyed, mostly smaller ships and a dozen other ships were damaged to a degree.

As soon as the capital ships got in range of each other a whole new slaughter started. The Tau'ri ships were the first to fire. A pair of cruisers, half a dozen destroyers and other ships and even a battle cruiser were destroyed in the first salvo. Two destroyers were destroyed in one shot, the first was gutted, and the beam was so powerful that the ship behind it was also hit head on, its shields failed and the ship was also destroyed.

The return fire hit hard, for the 305's it meant a drop of shield strength of a few percent, but for the 304's a drop of about ten to twenty percent was registered. Especially those ships targeted by Dominion battle cruisers took some damage. Within half a minute the first 304 had to withdraw, having been the focus point of a battle cruiser and four destroyers its shields were quickly depleted. Fortunately the fleet was able to maintain a defensive line. Soon the evacuation ships started ascending into a proper orbit from where they could enter hyperspace.

For the next fifteen minutes hundreds of ships evacuated the planet taking all the remaining people with them. In the end three entire waves were taken out, however only three 304's remained, and most 305's were under 40 percent shield strength.

Only minutes into the first wave Emerson had told the Ori warships to get out. Their fighters would land on the Tau'ri ships. The moment the last ship had left the planet, Emerson recalled all fighters and bombers. The Dominion immediately picked up on it; they sent an extra wave towards them. Somewhere in between the 406th and the 407th kill the last fighter got back aboard. Immediately all ships turned around and entered hyperspace.

Although the death toll was immense on the Dominion side, a total of 410 ships versus 0 Tau'ri ships, the Dominion would not lose a minute sleep over the losses sustained that day. In their logs the Dominion simply noted that they lost a certain number of ships, destroyed a number and some Intel on the Tau'ri ships involved in the battle.

On the Tau'ri side the commanders wrote up reports on their casualties, the hostile tactics, their own tactics and a minute by minute report of all their actions starting five minutes before they exited hyperspace and ending about an hour after they arrived at another Ori stronghold. Those reports, along with automatically gathered logs from the ship's systems were all gathered and eventually sent to Earth.

In total they lost 98 crewmembers. Eighty were pilots and the other eighteen were lost when a particularly strong power relay overloaded in engineering.

From the private memoires of General Paul Emerson.

_Eventually we managed to get a stable means of communication going. Tomin was the most senior Ori commander left in the Galaxy. All other military districts were already destroyed. Most of the ships Tomin had left were remote controlled; they were already built before the other districts fell to the Dominion. His entire fleet consisted of about twelve hundred mother ships with the required fighters and bombers. There were only a limited amount of ships they could use in battle since they had a limited number of priors, and only they could remote control another warship._

_Whatever remained of the Ori civilization was concentrated around a dozen star systems. A mere fifteen to twenty million souls were left alive after multiple attacks and bombardments. Most of the industry was gone. The people lived in about anything underground, basements, shelters, metro tunnels, even the sewers. They had little worries for food, their reserve food supplies were designed for a much larger population._

_They had nowhere to go, all their planets were destroyed, only twelve remaining and even those were on the verge of being lost. Already during the first meeting we had with Tomin we decided to contact Earth and see if we could do something for them. Evacuating twenty million was difficult and relocating them somewhere was even worse. Earth did not have enough room for twenty million. Besides, it was not like the Ori would want to go up into the Tau'ri society._

_So once we got a stargate running we had a teleconference with Earth, more specifically the president. Tomin acted as the Ori leader since he was the only one of real power left. It was decided that for the moment a part would be evacuated through the stargate and resettled at one of Earth's new colonies for temporary settlement. A brigade of Engineers would establish an emergency settlement on an un-colonized planet near Heliopolis. Meanwhile the Tau'ri forces in the Ori galaxy would hold the Dominion off as long as possible as was the original plan._

_The group of scientists that had elected to stay behind and help out after the first encounter were all confirmed dead. They were killed in a bombardment by the Dominion._

_In order to maximize the defensive possibilities all people were brought together at the best defended planet and both MBDP's were deployed as well. In the following weeks we sent about twenty thousand people to Earth, most of them were construction workers whom would help with building the new settlement. They had already settled on a name for the planet, Novus Celestis._

From the biography of General Jack O'Neill: 'For Crying out loud!'.

_Whether the Ori would remain a nation of their own or blend into the Tau'ri Federation was still undecided, both options were still open. The fact that The Ori and Ancients were once brothers was helpful, but then again their differences and the ultimate conflict created fear for each other. This didn't decrease when new elections saw a right wing senator from New England, USA winning the elections by only a tenth of a percent. The problem with this specific person was that he was still upset by the loss of many close friends in the destruction of the IOA HQ, for which he blamed the military instead of the IOA itself. He tended to be quite xenophobic, and planned on reducing corporation with non-human allies like the Jaffa and Lucian Alliance. He also wanted to limit the freedom of the military while creating more freedom for multi-planetary corporations, big business. _

_Fortunately the senate and congress was divided, president Ed Kealty only managed to get a majority by two votes, meaning that anything could ruin his plans. The military would sustain its expansion, though all their assets were confined to bases. Every ship movement had to be approved by the president's office and so were the movement of units above company size. From the five 305's assigned to Caprica Anchorage four were pulled back to the Titan Jump Gate base on the likewise named moon of Saturn in the Sol system. The fifth 305 got very strict orders of engagement. Kealty was all about bringing the power of the military back to his office, doing things his way, not the way the military wanted it done._

_In addition to limiting the military's effectiveness he also overturned several tax bills, health plans and educational and social legislation enacted by previous presidents. He wanted the Tau'ri federation to be exactly like during the bush administration, sans the wars of course. The other two presidents that had served before him, President Hayes and President Durling had taken to the more European type of laws, for American stand__ards__ perhaps quite social or perhaps communist, but for the West-European countries quite acceptable and sometimes even liberal. Most of all he reintroduced one of the most comprehensive tax legislatures, making it nearly impossible for the regular citizen to fill out his or her IRS forms properly._

_For us commanders it wasn't easy, all the way from colonels to the chiefs of staff we were walking on eggshells, one wrong thing could find your career down the drain and transferred to some distant monitoring station on an uninhabited planet. Those that had been at the SGC from the start were hated to the extreme by Kealty, fortunately they were loved by the people and unofficial heroes. Carter almost lost her command when she corrected one of the Presidential 'scientific' advisers, on worldwide television no less._

_Sheppard was lucky, his command was located in another galaxy, far away from the prying eyes of presidential aides and any important political issues. Nevertheless he managed to get most of the hate from Kealty, mostly due to illegal ship movements in order to keep the Genii in control. Eventually Kealty decided to take some of the ships away from Sheppard's command. This however was in direct violation with the plans that were made by the Joint Chiefs for the war against the Dominion._

_All the while in the Ori galaxy Emerson was holding strong. Having lost one 305, two Hak'tyl, three 304's and a 306 he was nearly ready for a total evacuation of all humans remaining in the Ori galaxy. By this time they had been in the Ori galaxy for nearly 22 months. Over time nearly four million civilians had been transferred through the stargate to Novus Celestis. About half of the 600 remaining Ori warships were converted into transport ships, while the rest was housed in newly built transport ships._

From the private memoires of General Paul Emerson.

_April 9__th__, 2023 was the final day in the Ori galaxy. Both jumpgates were set up near a black hole so to speed up the evacuation of all the ships. All Tau'ri made stargates were loaded into the 305's and the same was for the MBDP's, that kind of technology could not fall into enemy hands._

_All the warships would be positioned in a half circle around the jumpgates with their back to the black hole. Meanwhile one 305, with some extra ZPM's would extend its shields around the two jumpgates to protect them. Eventually when all transports had evacuated, the Jaffa and Ori warships would retreat, followed by the 306's and 304's. eventually each 305 would evacuate and the last one, the same that protected the jumpgates would destroy each gate with a mark X nuke and then return home by hyperdrive. Despite all the ZPM's and advanced tech the 305 sported it would still take eight months for her to return to the MW Local cluster._

**TFS SOL**

"General, we're nearly done with the evacuation we should make the jump to the black hole soon." Cadman said.

"Very well. Has the Saturn confirmed the operational status of the jumpgates?" Emerson asked.

"Yes sir, they have started the evacuation, Atlantis had dialed in once and reported successful jumps so far."

"Good, have the main force relocate to the jumpsite. Tell General Chenkov he has operational command of the last part of the evacuation here and to join us the moment he is done."

The ship was quickly in hyperspace and ten minutes later arrived at the jumpsite. The scene was monumental. Several hundred warships formed a protective cordon around the jumpgates while all transport ships were lined up waiting for their turn.

After an hour Chenkov's group arrived. They reported having been attacked by a massive Dominion fleet. The group lost nearly a dozen Ori warships and also two 304's.

It took another two hours before the first Dominion scout forces located them. The first group, just two frigates were dispatched off before they could even positively identify the fleet. Unfortunately another patrol found them only half an hour later. This group was not dispatched off in time and sent out an alarm message to all nearby Dominion forces.

Not twenty minutes later the first responders arrived. Instead of waiting on the perimeter and gathering information while waiting for reinforcements these ships engaged. Within minutes and without any losses these ten ships were destroyed. But by the time the first unit was destroyed four times their number had arrived. These too engaged the defenders. With still over two hours to go they all settled in for one of the longest fights they'd been in. fighters and bombers were launched and Asgard transportation systems were activated in case they could get a nuke through some shields.

For every ship they destroyed, four or five would join the battle, on the wrong side. Because maneuvering was limited due to the defensive position and the black hole a lot of Ori ships bought it, they were destroyed by overwhelming numbers.

Once they entered what would have been the final hour of the evacuation the military ships could finally start retreating. The time required for the entire fleet was reduced to merely twenty minutes, three more 304's were destroyed, as well as another Hak'tyl, a 306 and even four 305's. The casualties among the Ori were huge, nearly two hundred ships were already destroyed while another twenty were suffering damage on their hull.

"General! We've got two, I repeat two Dominion mother ships heading for us. ETA eight minutes." Cadman reported.

"How long until the evac. is done?" Emerson asked.

"Four minutes."

"Get me on a line with the jumpgate supervisor aboard the Mercury." Emerson ordered. A few seconds later he talked to the young Major that was in charge of jumpgate activities. "Major, I need you to dial up the power output to outside safety limits, then I want you to remove all safeties and set the detonator for two minutes after you've left the system. My hope is that the subsequent detonation will take out those Dominion mother ships."

"_Sir, that explosion could very well destroy several nearby systems, we might not make it out in time."_ The Major said.

"I know, and I'm sorry that I have to ask this of you guys, but every mother ship we take down is an enormous boost. We'd lose twenty 305's to destroy those two mother ships the conventional way."

"_Yes sir."_

The next minutes the major was busy preparing the jumpgates for detonation. The remaining ships, mostly Tau'ri one by one jumped back home. Eventually all ships were gone and all that remained was an awful amount of debris. The Mercury quickly entered hyperspace, braking nearly all safeties trying to get as far away as they could.

Minutes later the Mercury felt the shockwave, it wasn't much, but it was noticeable.

Back in the system the two jumpgates exploded simultaneously, the two mother ships, as well as anything else within a light-year was destroyed. The explosion was as strong as a super nova. Nothing remained to leave a trace of what had happened there.

**Jump point two, N45-RA Nebula**

**April 9 2023**

**1534 hours**

The Sol was the last ship to arrive. Meanwhile the other Ori ships were assigned to convoys and shipped to Tau'ri planets and Novus Celestis. Though engineers had done a lot of work at Novus Celestis it was by no means ready to support over fifteen million people. Right now only about five million people could be housed. The rest would be located at nearby Tau'ri colonies.

Aboard the Mars a man stood looking out a porthole watching the Sol return.

"Sir, the Sol has arrived."

"Good, beam me over, I need to have a chat with Emerson before the President's goons get to him." The man said.

A minute later the man was transferred. Aboard the Sol he waited in Emerson's private quarters. As Emerson entered they greeted each other.

"Paul."

"Jack."

"Officially we are speaking about casualties etcetera, but I have to give you a warning." Jack O'Neill said.

"Go ahead."

"The president has it in for you. I don't think he ever expected you to bring everyone back and now he's pissed. He just wanted to get his hands on some of the tech from the Ori instead of getting an entirely new civilization he has to care for as well, besides, if the Ori join the Federation his majority might be lost. But what really matters is that he want to prosecute you for the losses you sustained. It is very likely a ship is already underway with a special detachment to take you into custody for gross incompetence." Jack said.

"But that's absurd. My orders were to evacuate the Ori galaxy." Emerson said. "Before we started this mission we knew we might lose all ships, it was a risk we all accepted."

"I know, but those parts of your orders were classified. Now Kealty got one of his judge friends to deny a trial behind closed doors so those orders can't be brought in for your defense."

"So that's it? I get nailed to the cross for doing my job?" Emerson asked.

"Well, we're not sitting still. The chairman of the Joint Chiefs has already resigned his commission out of protest, as have several other generals across the branches. Admiral Jackson, the new chairman spent a letter asking all military commanders to stay at their post despite their feelings about this injustice, and all I can say is that he is planning something, don't ask me what but he has something going on."

The intercom activated. _"General, a ship just dropped out of hyperspace, they say they've got a federal warrant with your name on it. They are requesting a beam over. You want me to delay them?" _his XO asked.

"Negative, beam them over to the bridge, I'll be there in a minute." He turned to Jack. "You have any advice?"

Jack produced a small tube from his pocket. "Take this." He said as he uncapped it and handed it over.

Emerson swallowed the contents of the tube. "What is it?"

"Nanites, they'll transmit your location and vital signs to my office, we've got a little group going that'll help you out the moment Kealty hearts you. In addition to that they'll keep you healthy and prevent Kealty from using some serum against you to control your mind or something."

"Thank you Jack."

"You're welcome. I've got to go, Kealty might draw some conclusions when he hears I was here before his goons were."

They shook hands and Jack was beamed out back to the Mars, which in turn headed back towards Terra Nuevo.

**TBC**

**So this is kind of part of a two parter, the next chapter will feature Emersons trial, more problems created by Kealty and probably much more Dominion related stuff.**

**what did you guys think of the biography parts? Were they useful? Annoying? Too much? It's my first time doing them so let me know what you feel about them and if I should use them again for the following chapters.**


	9. Chapter 9

**AN: thanks to Rudy Pena for the beta.  
AN: the second, quite long part. Enjoy, read and review!**

From the biography of General Jack O'Neill: 'For Crying out loud!'.

_It had been two months before the final charges were readied against Emerson. Up until that time he was held in an undisclosed location without representation. Eventually two JAG lawyers were assigned to his defense. One had been the Navy JAG San Diego while the other had been the US JAG Europe. Both were among the best in military and federal law._

_Meanwhile Kealty hadn't been sitting still. He introduced a number of new bills that extended the power of the president in case of an emergency or crisis. On the outside it was very reasonable, during a crisis or emergency the president should be able to make decisions without going through the entire bureaucratic process. The fine print however didn't specify what exactly an emergency was; a simple burglary could be made into an emergency if the president wanted to._

_In addition to the political actions he had been leaking negative information about the Ori while also sending ships by to check on the Ori at Novus Celestis and ensure their 'safety'. In reality he was just waiting for them to make a wrong move he could use against them in the press. _

_All Kealty did was increase the tensions between the Ori and the somewhat radical Tau'ri citizens, and especially on planets that temporarily housed followers until more living space could be constructed in Novus Celestis. The first crimes were already reported widely in the press. The press unfortunately was in the hands of Kealty as he had a lot of friends there which made sure the spotlight was on what the followers did. Of course there were some bar fights but nothing serious and in comparison the followers were actually quite tame. But it was because of those spotlights that it didn't look that way. The first signs of race related attacks were already found._

**55-Lima**

**55****th**** police precinct, Cartville, Alpha site**

**August 2, 2023**

**1849 hours**

55 Lima was one of the fourteen squad cars used by the 55th precinct. Cartville was one of the larger cities on the Alpha site. The city counted nearly two million citizens while neighboring cities added another million daily commuters.

Officers Morrelli and Thompson rode 55 Lima for the last four years, ever since the 55th was created.

"_Attention al units, we got an assault in progress at Lexington and 63__rd__ street nearest units please respond."_ Central reported.

"That us?" Thompson asked his partner.

"Only two blocks away." Morrelli said as she responded to the call. "Central, 55 Lima responding."

Thompson, who was driving turned on the sirens and they quickly made their way over to the corner of Lex and 63rd.

A minute later they arrived at the scene, two teenagers were beating up a man lying on the ground. Once the car arrived both teenagers ran away into an alley. One however tripped over a bunch of boxes and was quickly taken into custody by Morrelli. The second teenager got away, though with Officer Thompson on his six. Back at the corner Morrelli put the kid into the squad car and went to check up on the man. What she found wasn't promising.

"Central this is 55 Lima, I need EMT on a rush. My partner is on foot pursuit of suspect, last known position in alley heading for Washington street."

Meanwhile Thompson was only about twenty meters behind the suspect. He had to admit that the boy was fast. Fortunately Thompson was fast as well. He could only hear the sirens of other squad cars but they were closing in and he continuously kept them up to date on his position and heading.

As he rounded the next corner he saw he had chased the boy into a dead end. He was just about to tell the boy to give up when the boy also noticed he was stuck. As he halted to a stop he reached behind his back to grab something there, he also turned around to face the cop. Once he got a hold of what he was looking for her took it out and brought it up. Thompson, thinking it was a weapon of some sorts took out his firearm and fired a quick shot just before the kid could bring whatever he had in his hands up.

The bullet struck the boy in his heart. Before Thompson could reach the boy he was already dead. He checked the wrist of the kid for a heartbeat. "Shit!" he contacted central. "Central I need EMT and a Supervisor in the alley behind 68th street, near Delphi. Suspect has been shot."

Ten minutes later the scene had been secured and they started the standard procedure after a cop shot a person. The cop would surrender his weapon to the IAB(internal Affairs Bureau/rat squad) investigator and walk the investigator through his steps and actions.

"How's the man doing?" Thompson asked the investigator.

"He'll survive. It appears he was attacked because he's a follower." The investigator said. "That's not what you should be focusing on. You shot a kid that didn't carry a weapon but instead grabbed his cell phone."

"Damn it, why the hell did he have to go grab his cell phone, don't they know we can't really distinguish between a cell phone and a gun? Why the hell was that kid reaching for it anyways? Huh? He wanted to call the police or something?"

"Probably his lawyer. Turns out the kid's parents are somewhere high up in politics, most of the time their back at Earth. The press is just getting word of it and the chief already has a press conference planned in fifteen minutes."

"I'm in deep shit right?"

"You could say that again. We're gonna bring you back to the precinct and you'll be on administrative leave until we can clear all this up. Okay?" Thompson just nodded. "Your partner can drop you off."

From the testimony of Lieutenant Johnson, 55th precinct, city of Cartville, Alpha site.

_Things quickly went downhill after the press conference. The people were mad about the shooting of what later was confirmed to be an unarmed kid. The power failure that evening just completed the mess. Most of the people had just heard about the shooting when the power went down. From the reports I received that evening the riots started when two followers attempted to attend the wake that was held at the scene of the shooting. The officers there had to evacuate the two followers in a rush to save their lives. The angry mob made their way over to the precinct to demand justice but quickly became violent after passage was denied by police officers outside the precinct. They destroyed a window and set two squad cars on fire before officers were able to drive the group back using tear gas. Up to that point nine arrests were made_.

_That night word spread of the protests and what had happened at the precinct and before ten PM we were facing a riot. At that point I had all my officers equip themselves with riot gear and I called for backup from the police headquarters. For a still unknown reason backup did not arrive until after midnight and by that time the violence had already spread beyond the 55__th__._

_The next morning most riots calmed down and people went home. Unfortunately riots kept spawning all across the precinct for the next days._

**CNN late edition**

**August 2**

**2300 hours**

Today the trial of Space Forces General Emerson started, his lawyers are confident of the innocence of their client, but on the other hand has no confidence in the impartiality of the judges and jury." The anchorman said. A short video started of one of the lawyers exiting the courtroom.

"_Commander Rabb, why don't you have any confidence in the judges and jury?"_

"_Look, this trial isn't judicial, its Political, President Kealty isn't happy with the losses sustained in the Ori galaxy and wants to blame someone. The easiest mark for him is my client. It's easy to see that the President wants a conviction, he pulled strings to get the current judges assigned to the case, and all three are known supporters of President Kealty. The same goes for the jury, all registered voters for President Kealty."_

"_Commander, recent military rules have limited the amount of comment an officer can give about a serving politician, aren't you breaking that rule right now?"_

"_Well, strictly seen yes, but under the UCMJ (Uniformed code of military justice) my client is entitled to the best defense my co-counsel and I can give and since the President has involved himself and the press in the case we have to defend the General in those areas as well."_

The video was cut short as a confused anchorman relayed breaking news. "Ladies and Gentlemen, it seems that riots have broken out in Cartville on the Alpha site. Nearly four hours ago a fifteen years old boy was shot and killed by the police after he had assaulted a follower. Details on how the riots exactly started are still unknown but it has been confirmed that several police cars have been destroyed and people have been arrested."

"So far that's all we know but we will give you more, the moment we have more. Stay tuned."

**Alpha Site Governor's office**

**August 5**

For the last two days his planet had been in turmoil as riot after riot happened. Ever since that cop shot a kid the riots were spreading. First just in Cartville but later in the suburbs and within days nearly every city on the planet was faced with riots. The civilian governor (Officially the Alpha site was a military planet) had the difficult decision to make how he would end the riots and have the peace return to the streets. He had already called up the national guard and all other assets he had under his control. A state of emergency ruled the planet and the national guard hadn't really helped much. All that remained was to either beam everyone on the streets back to their homes, or to the jails despite that being illegal under several laws, or request help from the central government, which would most likely result in the deployment of the first marine division, the fourth light infantry division and two mechanized divisions that were stationed at the Alpha site.

"Governor, the police is at breaking point; a Molotov cocktail killed two officers and landed another four in the hospital. There are entire areas that are inaccessible to the police. We need the military sir." An aide urged the governor.

"How long would it take for the military to start helping us if I were to request it and get it now?"

"A day, perhaps less, the marines have been put on alert."

"Then we'll make the call. Get me the president's office." The governor decided. "What are the predictions for the meantime?"

"I have no idea sir, it's not like the riots are organized nor have a real purpose. Right now we're just trying to keep everybody safe, most of the anger is directed at the followers so the neighborhoods where they live are heavily patrolled. Local councils have already announced that they would organize a peaceful protest march around the scene of the shooting. It has the largest potential for disaster, people of all ages will attend and we estimate that about twenty thousand people will participate. They'll march from the scene to the city hall."

"Isn't the area around the Cartville city hall off limits after that attack on the Mayor?"

"Yes it is. They hope they'll get through but the police won't budge and has announced they'll use tear gas and other means to prevent the people from going through to the city hall."

"And they'll march tomorrow?"

"Very likely sir."

"Assuming the president authorizes the use of the military forces here I want those marines that are on alert deployed to that protest march."

"I'll make sure they are. Assuming the president agrees."

**Battalion HQ, 1****st**** battalion of the first marines**

**Morning of August 6****th**

Lieutenant Colonel Mia Lundstrom commanding officer of the first marine battalion, part of the first marine regiment of the first marine division had just received her orders. The president reluctantly had agreed to authorize the use of regular military forces to quell the riots of the Alpha site. Her battalion would be among the first to see action. She would have to stop a group numbering in the tens of thousands with a mere 1200 soldiers, organized in four companies. Her job was to divert the march, which was hell bent on reaching city hall away from it and to a park where, if everything went well a spokesperson for the government would address them there.

A company would block the march eight blocks from the city hall. They would also send the protesters in the right direction and cut off the way to the downtown business area. She expected that their job would be the hardest. The police had already tried to inform the march leaders about the change in plans but were unable to contact them. She had already directed the CO of A company to put up signs with the changes and they would also announce the change with loudspeakers.

B company only had to maintain order during the march from the blockade near city hall to the park. They were equipped with humvees, as were the other companies and would also make sure no groups broke off towards the city center. If the protesters behaved their job would be easiest. But if they wanted to find a way around, they'd be in trouble; they only had so much troops and had the largest area to cover.

C company was ordered to maintain order at the park for the rally and provide security for the spokespersons.

D company, or the weapons company was held in reserve, partly because their presence would do more harm than good. An M-700 was one thing, but a M249SAW or a stinger was not something the people would react well to. Nevertheless they had ditched most of their heavy weapons for regular rifles which should be more than ample for this job.

"So you all have your orders, any questions? Remarks?"

"Yes Ma'am, what are the rules of engagement?" A Company's CO asked.

"The politicians want you not to do anything. That being said, I'd rather have to explain why you busted a few kidneys with rifle butts then explain why a bunch of unarmed people got killed. That's what started all this. If you have to fire warning shots do it overhead, and use bullets, they make a hell of a lot more noise than a M700."

"What if we're being overrun? When the masses are so large we couldn't shoot them even if we wanted to?" B companies CO asked, a logical question for him because he would most likely be outnumbered if anything were to happen.

"Use teargas to slow them down and if that doesn't work you retreat to the next intersection and try again. Meanwhile you will inform me of the situation and I'll send a platoon or so from D Company."

"And if they are elsewhere occupied?"

"Then you fall back until you reach the Police barricades, two blocks away from city hall." Lundstrom said. "Look I know this isn't our usual thing, we're not trained for this and have zero experience. We do have discipline, use it to keep your sergeants in line and they'll keep the marines in line. These are our own people, we do not want to harm them but a line has to be drawn. Alright?" all four CO's nodded. Good, Semper Fi."

**Two hours later**

**A company blockade**

Two marines were posted on top of a building with a flat roof, they were on lookout and using their powerful binoculars could track almost the entire march. Once the protesters got close enough to read the signs or hear the announcement they hesitated. Under the lead of the organizers they did walk on until they reached the barricade. They stayed at a distance of about thirty meters. A lieutenant was using a megaphone to issue orders to the crowd and issue warnings.

After some chanting most people turned left for the park obeying the orders given by the marines. There was a small group that remained behind chanting and cursing at the marines(whom they mistakenly called soldiers, Marines don't like that). The group grew as more and more people passed the blockade.

"_Echo Six, this is Alpha one Eye snatcher, we've got more than the predicted amount of people coming through here. Current estimates are above the fifty thousand and counting."_ Alpha one Eye snatcher was a recon team atop the roof.

"_Alpha one Eye snatcher, Echo six here, I copy. Keep counting and scanning for trouble."_ Echo six was Lieutenant Colonel Mia Lundstrom's cal sign.

The marines had deployed their humvees in such a way that most of the street was blocked off. A platoon of marines stood in front of the vehicles while a second platoon stood behind the vehicles while their own vehicles were parked there, ready to deploy at a moment's notice.

Once in a while a dumbass would walk up to the marines and stand at a meter or two away. He yelled in their face, calling them jarheads, baby killers and some more unwelcome names and spit at the marines. Each of those idiots would quickly feel the butt end of a M700 hitting their kidneys before being dragged away by two marines and placed into custody.

"_If you do not comply with our orders forceful means will be utilized." _The Lieutenant with the megaphone said.

Another few minutes later while most of the protesters followed the new route, several hundred remained at the checkpoint to cause trouble for the marines.

"_Ready gas masks." _A company's CO ordered. The sight of all those marines simultaneously reaching behind their back and grabbing their gas masks and putting them on was a clear enough message for half of those that remained. They however didn't get a chance to get out. From several points the marines threw CS gas canisters into the crowd and a charge of the marines followed soon. First platoon went straight into the protesters beating and arresting them, while second platoon went beside them in order to form a new barricade behind the troublemakers.

Second platoon was now standing very close to the main part of the march though the violence against them was low.

Within ten minutes all troublemakers were arrested and taken away by police vans to be processed and detained. The marines resumed their original mission at the barricade.

**2****nd**** squad, second platoon B company (Cal sign Bad Boy 2)**

Bad Boy 2 was assigned to roadblock duty. They had parked their three humvees across the road to block it. Like the rest of their company they had to prevent the march from going downtown, instead they had to make sure the march went to the park.

"You hear about A company?" one marine asked another.

"No, what happened?" the other asked.

"They beat the shit out of a couple hundred assholes. Used CS gas and the likes." The marine replied. "Happened over an hour ago and those mofo's still won't listen." He said as he spit in the direction of the protesters.

"Shut that trap marine." The squad leader said. "You're supposed to be a professional, act like one."

"Aye Sarge." Both marines said.

"Everyone listen up." The Sarge said. "Intel has been very wrong about this march. Instead of the expected 20 to 25 K people we have a confirmed 100K and perhaps even 150K protestors. This means that we'll be on station for a lot longer so I want the fire teams to rotate, two on the barricade, one resting and eating. Fire team Charley, you're off first. Rotation is every three hours."

Behind him a high sort of whistle was heard, followed by something impacting a window and something or someone falling.

At once the Sarge turned around only to see one of his marines on the ground. Within a few steps he was at the marine's side. Meanwhile he yelled to take cover. He looked the marine over for any injuries and found a gash at the marine's neck spilling quite an amount of blood. "Medic!" quickly the medic made his way over to him and the wounded marine, he started working on him immediately while two other marines helped him.

"Echo six, echo six, this is Bad Boy two do you copy?"

"_Bad boy two, this is Echo six we hear you."_

"I need an immediate Medevac, I have a man down, and I am taking fire."

"_Medevac is underway; do you have a sight of the shooters?"_

"Negative on the shooters, what are my orders Echo six?"

"_Hold your position and try to get a visual on the shooter. Backup is on their way."_

"Copy Echo six." The Sarge said. "Keep your heads down!" he yelled at his marines as he saw that some tried to peek over the humvees. "Anyone see the muzzle flashes?" echos of no returned.

"Sir, I think I saw something in the crowd, can't be sure if it was a muzzle flash or a reflection of something."

Some more stuff hit the humvees they were hiding behind. One of those things fell over the side for the marines to see. "Bricks?" a marine asked.

"Yeah, people tend to throw bricks when they're mad." Another replied.

"Doc, take two marines and get that man a hundred meters back and wait for the evac. The rest of you prepare for CS." Sarge ordered.

A minute later the medic had taken the wounded away and everyone was ready for the CS gas. This day the CS canisters had replaced their normal Frag grenades so every soldier had a couple. Each and every one of them threw a CS gas canister. Quickly enough people started yelling and crying but the amount of bricks thrown decreased. Instead they could hear the sound of bullets impacting the humvees.

"Echo six, Echo six, this is Bad Boy two, do you copy?"

"_Bad boy two, this is Echo six, we copy go ahead."_

"I have deployed CS gas but weapons fire is still incoming, I request UAV coverage to locate gunmen."

"_Copy, rerouting Eye in the sky, ETA thirty seconds. Medevac will be there within minutes."_

"Copy Echo six, thanks."

And just when Echo six said the UAV support would arrive, it did. Sarge looked up in the skies and vaguely saw the UAV. He turned his attention to a small screen he took from the humvee. It showed the crowd dispersing as the cloud of CS gas expanded. A few blocks down he could see a similar thing. The difference was that in his little spot he could see the muzzle flashes of weapons being fired he guessed they were fired from an elevated position since the crowd showed no sign of being fired at.

He also saw the Medevac coming in. it was one of the newer marine transport ships. It was called a space hawk and looked like a cross of a Blackhawk and an Osprey. What made it so special was that it could reach orbit in about an hour and descend from orbit in about fifteen minutes. The First Marine division's air wing only had a dozen or so space hawks.

Seeing as the space hawk would have no trouble he turned his attention to the gunmen. He noticed that there was some room in the crowd where a squad or so could advance through.

"Fire team Alpha, there is a way through the crowd about twenty meters to our right. Go through and find those gunmen." He said as he showed them the live feed. He took another screen from the humvee and gave it to the fire team's leader.

As the four men team made their way across the street he looked back to find that the space hawk was making its landing. The pilot was careful so not to hit the buildings to the side.

As he watched the pilot do his work he suddenly saw a red dot appear on the pilot's chest. Before he could do anything to warn the pilot a single shot was fired directly through the strong cockpit window into the pilot's chest killing him in seconds. The pilot's hands clutched on to the stick and the space hawk quickly turned to the left. The co-pilot attempted to correct by powering up increasing their altitude and steering right.

The co-pilot's efforts wouldn't matter. The space hawk hit a balcony and started spinning, out of control. The aircraft started hitting more buildings as it was coming down. Eventually it crashed into a second floor apartment over the march route. All five crewmembers died in the crash and as debris fell down people in the crowd died as well. The chaos was complete and was only further complicated by a fire team trying to advance through the now panicking crowd.

"Echo six, Echo six, this is Bad Boy two. The Medevac is down, we've got major casualties. Send EMT, fire rescue, reinforcements, Fuck! Send everything you've got now!"

The Sarge didn't wait for the response and started issuing orders to his men. "Fire team Charley, go secure that crash site and help the casualties. Fire team Bravo, you're with me, we're going to help fire team Alpha take down those shooters."

At once all marines stood up and quickly made their way across the street, through the masses there. Only the medic and the wounded marine stayed behind. It would be the last time the Sarge and his men would be seen alive.

Three minutes later, reinforcements from D company arrived. They more cautiously made their way through the crowd and secured the area. They found the bodies of the eleven marines that made up Bravo squad at several locations around the scene. Some seemed to be mowed down in surprise while others seemed to have been beaten to death.

From the memoires of General Patraeus.

_The evening of the sixth, I arrived at the Alpha site's military HQ. I was ordered to take command there. What I encountered was worse than Iraq, Afghanistan and the other dozen or so hotspots I've been to in my career. By the time I arrived the First Marines had already gone in in-force to secure the site and find those responsible for the deaths of sixteen Marines, eleven of Bravo Squad and five from the Medevac Space hawk. The violence that day was a double edged sword. On one side all other riots virtually ceased that night. For Cartville however, the violence grew exponentially. _

_The forty-third Mechanized division rolled into the city and started occupying vital areas and setting up a perimeter around the area where most of the violence happened. The fourth light infantry redeployed quickly and was dropped off near a helipad in the center of the forty-third perimeter. The twelfth mechanized division took two days to relocate, they together with the forty-third created a solid perimeter while the marines and Light infantry went in to clear it out, inch for inch._

_Twelve days later we were able to declare the city safe again. A heavy price was paid. Nearly four hundred soldiers were killed or seriously injured, while the civilian casualties neared the twenty thousand deaths and wounded. The total damage to civilian property was estimated near the forty billion, while the governmental en military damages were nearly a hundred billion. _

_An investigation into the crash of the Space hawk was started, one of the first discoveries was that the pilot was shot by a .50BMG round fired by a M82 Sniper rifle. Though weapons were still common on the streets, a .50 sniper rifle was not common._

**Office of the General of the Space Forces**

**Main tower, Atlantis**

**August 20 2023**

"Jesus Christ." O'Neill said. He was reading the preliminary report made by General Patraeus. It was late and the report was one of the last things he wanted to read before he went to his quarters.

"What's that?" Sam Carter asked as she entered his office.

"Hi, I was just reading Patraeus' report on the Cartville Riots (the news called it a Massacre). Compared to this the Teacher riots in Caprica city, eight months before the attacks, are nothing, and don't get me started on the LA riots."

"Yeah, I heard. Absolutely terrible what happened there. What'll happen now?" Carter asked.

"The FBI will start an investigation and we'll see what comes from that." O'Neill said as he laid the report down and stood up to put on his jacket.

"You wanna come see the report on Emerson's trial? It's on a big screen in the conference room. Rumor has it that Kealty's lawyers pulled some nasty tricks."

"Yeah, they somehow managed to get around some of the courtroom procedures; verdict will be read tomorrow morning at nine. The defense hasn't even been able to mount a proper defense yet, he'll be found guilty, not that any amount of lawyers or time would have changed that." O'Neill said somber.

"That rat Kealty. What can we do now?" Carter asked.

"Nothing, nothing legal anyways. We tried getting the trial done in an alliance court since it was an alliance mission, though under Tau'ri rule."

"No luck there right?"

"No luck anywhere."

"_Jack? Sam?" _Someone behind them said. They both turned around to not be surprised by what they saw.

"Daniel, what a surprise." Jack said with sarcasm in his voice.

"_Yeah I know. How are you two doing?"_

"You really need to ask? I'm sure you've been keeping tabs on all of us." Jack said. "Besides, we're fine. It's the Federation that's in trouble; it's getting screwed up by Kealty."

"_Emerson and the Alpha site?"_

"Among others." Sam replied.

"Somehow I get the feeling you're not here for a social call, so why don't you cut to the chase?" Jack asked.

"_True. They are coming. They are coming right now and will arrive within a day, you need to send the fleet, your first battle with them in this galaxy will determine the outcome, don't ask me how, but it's just that way."_

"How do you know?" Sam asked.

"_We've been looking for them, it wasn't easy but we've just acquired them. Atlantis' sensors should pick them up any moment."_

"Of all moments they could chose to show up." Sam said.

"_General O'Neill."_ The Intercom chimed. O'Neill pushed a button on his desk. _"Sir, we are detecting massive hyperspace disturbances in the Dominion arrival zone. Sir guessing by the size and speed I'd say we have eight to sixteen Dominion battle groups incoming."_ The Officer of the watch reported.

"Thank you Colonel." O'Neill said. He pushed another button, which activated a voice responding computer. "Confirm Identity of General Jack O'Neill Tau'ri Federation Space Forces." His ATA gene would do the rest of the id confirmation. "Send a Flash priority one message to all Tau'ri fleet units in the known galaxies. Message reads, Prepare for DEFCON 1, Dominion fleet incoming stand by for further orders. Message ends. Also send a message to the Joint Chiefs for an immediate meeting and prepare for a teleconference with the president."

"You need me to do something?" Sam asked.

Jack thought about it for a while. "Yeah, the Sol is in orbit, Marks and Cadman are still on board. Take command and take a cruiser group and head for the incursion point. I've got a feeling Kealty is not gonna let us follow our plan. Make sure you do not head directly for the area, instead make a detour along Terra Nuevo or Caprica."

"Okay, what are you going to do?"

"Get you some back up, one way or another."

"Good luck with that." Sam said. She activated her earpiece. "Colonel Marks, this is General Carter, Beam me up to the Sol immediately."

Seconds later she was beamed up and Jack left for the Situation Room near the auxiliary control room in the bowels of Atlantis. Once he arrived there he found that most of the other chiefs were already there. "Gentlemen." Jack greeted them.

The Chairman started as soon as the heavy doors were closed. "Jack, since this is your area of expertise, what have you got?"

"Only a few minutes ago I was contacted by Daniel Jackson, he warned me that a Dominion invasion was imminent. Only seconds or so later Atlantis' sensors picked up the invasion fleet. Preliminary readings suggest there are anywhere between eight and sixteen battle groups incoming."

"And we expected twenty?" the army chief of staff asked.

"Correct, it is possible that our expedition to the Ori Galaxy has lowered their initial numbers for the invasion." O'Neill said. "Our plans detail that we send a large part of our fleet to engage them at the incursion point. I must also say that Daniel suggested that the first battle in this galaxy will determine the outcome. I have already put all space forces at DEFCON-1 and al ships should be heading for their assigned positions."

"_They are not."_ Kealty's voice said. A holographic representation of the president appeared at the head of the table. All chiefs immediately rose as usual.

"Mister President." All greeted.

"_I have recalled all Tau'ri vessels to their home port and the 305 fleet back to Earth. We will not involve ourselves into this fight just to save a bunch of Jaffa and Colonials. We will defend our colonies only and we will not waist the fleet on this ridiculous plan you have made up General."_ Kealty said while looking at O'Neill.

"Mister President, with all due respect, all our plans, all our defenses are designed around the plan we have to start now. Everything depends on hitting the Dominion hard now, and then letting them expand for a year or so before engaging them across the front. By that time they should be getting closer to the Aschen territories and the Twelve Colonies. Our entire fleet, our entire military structure has been redesigned around this plan, not to mention the plan to first defeat the Dominion invasion in the Pegasus galaxy." The Chairman pleaded.

"_My civilian advisors say different, according to them we can avoid any further bloodshed by returning our ships to our own planets. Now that General Emerson will soon be convicted it will surely make an impression on the Dominion that we are unwilling to combat them, and they will accept that and not attack us, for if they do the Tau'ri military will beat any fleet they will send."_

"Mister President that it total bullshit. If we let the Dominion settle in this galaxy it will become a numbers game. A numbers game they will be able to win. As of this moment we have no ideas on how to destroy a single mother ship, let alone when they bring in hundreds of them to scavenge this galaxy." O'Neill burst out.

"_General! Control yourself. Now about those mother ships, you already managed to destroy three."_

"The first one was luck and the other two ruined several star systems, not something desirable when we are only defending our own star systems."

"_Well I don't really care, you figure that out, it's your JOB! And if you are too incompetent to do it I will have you removed by someone more capable."_ Kealty said with the anger audible in his voice. It also marked the end of the teleconference. Though before the connection was cut they could hear Kealty say: _'Incompetent Baboons.'_

"Gentlemen." Admiral Jackson started. "What do we do now?"

"Sir, whatever we're going to do next, I'm completely behind it." The Army Chief of staff said.

The other chiefs voiced their agreement over their colleague's opinion.

"This might also be the right time by saying that I ordered Carter to take command of the Sol and a cruiser group and head for the incursion point to join the alliance fleet there." O'Neill confessed.

"Okay. Well it seems we only have two choices anyways." Jackson said. "We quit, or we stage a coup, remove Kealty and his leadership and impose a military leadership, Martial law with a military dictatorship, basically."

"I hate to say it, but right now it seems that leaving Kealty in power will do more damage than a military dictatorship. We do however need to agree that the moment everything has settled down we relinquish our power and hold free elections to establish a new democratic government, and let them sort out what will happen to us. Please remember that we are doing is mutiny, punishable by death. Are we all willing to pay that price?" the Air force Chief said.

"_General Maynard, General Patraeus wishes to speak to you, he says it's an emergency." _Someone said over the intercom.

"General Patraeus, you're on the line with the joint chiefs."

"_General Maynard, could I speak to you privately for a moment?"_

Maynard picked up the phone. "Go ahead."

"_Please answer with yes or no only." _Patraeus said. _"Is the president there?"_

"No."

"_Can he listen to this conversation in some way?"_

"Not to my knowledge."

"_Good, in that case you can put me on speaker phone."_

"You're on speakers again."

"_Yes sir, thank you sir. Ever since the escalation on the Alpha site the FBI, Army CID and NCIS have been investigating the source of the high tech weapons involved in the shooting. An hour ago they made a stunning discovery. The weapons are from an armory near Washington DC, one used by the Secret Service. We have finally traced the people involved and found out who gave them the orders to release the weapons. Sir, President Kealty ordered a team of mercenaries to escalate the situation at the Alpha site, he ordered the shooting of the Marines."_

For a minute no one spoke, to stunned to say anything.

"General, I assume you have a file with the evidence for this?" General Jumper asked.

"_Yes sir, I'll forward it to General Maynard's account, that shouldn't raise any suspicion." Patraeus said. "And sirs, if you are going to do what I think you are going to do, I support you, as does my staff."_

"Thank you General." Maynard said. With that the connection was cut and not much later the files arrived. They were put on screens and the joint chiefs quickly started studying them.

An hour later they were done.

"That rat bastard." Jumper said.

"Do I need to call for a vote? I'd rather have this anonymous but a majority would do." Jackson asked.

"No objections here." O'Neill was the first to respond.

The rest of the Chiefs voiced similar answers.

"Alright, anyone have an idea how to do this?" Jackson asked.

"History tells us to seize the president and his cabinet, as well as other senior government officials in a surprise attack. We also need to capture vital communication hubs to prevent an uncontrolled release of media attention." O'Neill said.

"Yeah, we need boots on the ground for that. Anyone have an idea for a unit or a number of units loyal enough to fight their own countrymen?" Admiral Sir Stanhope said.

"I doubt any unit would be willing to do that, but considering the way the president is screwing over the military I doubt there would be much opposition to it from any reasonable commander." O'Neill said.

"So it comes down to availability, maneuverability and readiness, we need a unit that can move out within hours and hit targets around the planet simultaneously." Jumper said.

"The 101st is on hot stand-bye, there camped out at Fort Campbell, Kentucky. They are equipped with Space Hawk transports so they can reach any target within three to four hours, add another hour for preparation and orders and you've got a maximum of five hours." Maynard said. "General Sink, the 101st commander has already expressed his desire to get rid of Kealty and according to him his staff and commanders want the same."

"Okay, let's get him in here shall we, we need to set up a plan." Jackson proposed.

Thanks to the Asgard beaming technology General Sink was in the situation room.

"General, recently you have indicated that you are willing to affect a change in the current civilian leadership, are you still willing?"

"Yes sir I am. We need to end Kealty, and rather sooner than later. Let's cut to the core, we are planning a coup and you want me to be the muscle for it right?"

"Correct, General Maynard has informed us that you can commence operations within four to five hours." Jackson said.

"If I give the order within the hour they can be anywhere on the planet by 3AM GMT."

"Okay, take a chair and join us. We need to capture the president. He currently is in the White House. We also need to control the high court in The Hague, the Senate in Geneva and the house of representatives located in the Capitol building." Jackson summarized.

"I assume you want them all alive?" Sink asked.

"That's preferable, the president and his cabinet might resist, but I doubt the rest will be able to mount much of a resistance. Most of them will be asleep, especially those in Europe. We could have a squad pick them up at their homes and escort them to the place where they are working. It's easier to confine them in a place they are familiar with; they won't put up much of a fight that way. We could probably lock the president and other more powerful and dangerous people at the 8th & I street marine barracks."

"In the meantime we need to get control of all communications in the planet. Atlantis can use its systems to jam a lot of civilian channels, but there are some relay stations we need to capture. These include Fort Meade, Allice Springs, Australia; Ramstein, Germany and the Chelyabinsk Communication center. Several other posts are already under our control, such as Diego Garcia and the Okinawa station. We also need to send troops to the major channels to make sure we can get a coordinated release of information when we decide to release information." Maynard detailed.

"That's quite a lot for a single division. But I think it should be possible if we utilize the surprise advantage and rush the local defenders. We can use stun weapons to lower casualties but no matter what, people will die." Sink said.

"It is quite possible that as soon as word gets out other units will join you relieving the pressure on your troops." Jackson said.

"What about the fleet? More and more ships are arriving at Earth as time passes. We need them out there; they'll already be late if they leave now." O'Neill said.

"We can't send them now, it will inform Kealty of our defiance and he might take countermeasures. We may be able to do an appeal the moment the coup starts for them to start moving but they'd be considered traitors as well." Jumper said.

"Okay, we'll see what happens and who are willing to take the risk." Jackson said.

"We also need to find a way to liberate General Emerson. Thanks to the nanites he ingested we now know where he is, but that also tells us that he is heavily protected. He's being held at the ICC detention unit in Scheveningen near The Hague. The protection for that place is massive, it's rated to withstand orbital bombardment and its vehicles are all armored." O'Neill said.

"My Special Operations group can do that. I think they are secretly planning to free Emerson anyways." Sink said. "They'll be as fast as their transports can take them there."

"Well then General, I'd normally say you have your orders, but these can't be orders, so what about directions?" Admiral Jackson asked.

"Fine by me sir, I'm just glad we're doing it, he had it long coming."

"Yes he did. General, please try to keep casualties to a minimum, we need the public's support on our side."

"I'll tell my men sir, we'll do our best."

"That's all I'm asking." Jackson replied. With that General Sink was beamed back to his HQ in Kentucky.

"So, now we wait." O'Neill said.

"How do we handle foreign responses?" Jumper asked.

"We can't tell them now what we're going to do. The risk is too great." Jackson said.

"I could have a conversation with Ry'ac and Hermiond, they're both here and I could casually hint at the possibility so they won't be that surprised." O'Neill said.

"How about the Colonials, the Nox or the Tok'ra?"

"I don't trust their ambassadors here. I could send a messenger to their home worlds to explain what's going on the moment we're successful." O'Neill said.

"Might as well wait for us to be successful and then inform the ambassadors of those nations here." Maynard said.

"Let's do that." Admiral Jackson said. "Well, I think that's it for now. We should all go back to our offices and prepare for what's to come. Lets agree that at least one of us will remain here and once General Sink commences his operation we'll all meet back here again."

They all agreed and went their separate ways. Both the Vice chairman and the Chairman remained behind and did some paperwork and updated their will, just in case.

**0255 hours**

All the chiefs were back in their seats and several screens showed the progress the 101st was making across the planet.

"Sir, Atlantis has been secured. The jamming equipment is ready to go at your command." O'Neill said.

"General Sink, are you ready?"

"_Yes sir, all forces are in a waiting pattern over their targets and ready to engage within minutes."_

"Okay, send them in." Admiral Jackson said.

All across the planet space hawks of the 101st made for their targets.

In a suburban neighborhood near Geneva several space hawks set down, this neighborhood housed several senators. Each space hawk carried a squad of airborne troopers.

The soldiers disembarked and walked up to the door of the house. A few soldiers went around the back, just in case. The squad leader knocked on the door.

A minute later a man in a bathrobe opened the door.

"Senator Morris?" the Sergeant asked.

"Yes who are you?" the Senator replied.

"I'm Sergeant Fredricks of the 101st; I need you to come with us sir."

"Why? Is there an emergency?"

"I can't say sir, but I need you to put on some clothes and come with us, we'll escort you to the senate." The Sergeant said.

"Fine, give me a few minutes." The Senator said as he tried to close the door.

"I must insist on coming with you sir." The sergeant said as he put his foot between the door.

"What the hell is this?"

"Orders sir, please just do as I ask."

"Fine." The Senator said angry.

Five minutes later the Senator and the squad were loaded into the space hawk and it lifted off for the short flight to the Senate building in Geneva.

**The Hague area**

A platoon sized special operations group was embarked in five space hawks; they could count on the support of three other space hawks equipped with hellfire missiles and M-61 Gatling cannons. They could also count on the support of a flight of 302's should the rescue really go FUBAR. Since a stealthy insertion was out of the question they'd have to control the guard by impressive force, using the supporting space hawks to keep the guards occupied while the others dropped of the soldiers. All that was to be done without firing a shot, at least not the first one.

The entire operation went pretty smoothly, the guards probably already guessed what the space hawks were doing there and didn't put up a fight. Within minutes General Emerson was liberated from his cell and loaded into a space hawk. Once the rest was loaded in, they left, heading for ramstein AFB where a battalion had secured the communication station. On their way out a pair of fighters tried to stop them, but the support flight of 302's chased them away.

**Washington DC area**

Captain Speirs, CO of Easy Company, 2nd battalion 506th PIR was heading for the highest profile target he could get, the White house. His entire company was assigned to storm and take the building by force. They were under no illusions it would be easy. The Secret Service would be loyal to their president and put up a fight, at least until they had secured the president in the bunker. It was the plan to seize him before he got there. As he looked out the window he could see other space hawks throughout the city rounding up the members of the House of Representatives, nearly five hundred people in total.

In front of the transport he could see the illuminated White House; nothing seemed out of the ordinary except for the helipad. Marine one was warming up its engines and a group of agents stood around it.

Suddenly a streak of tracers came their way. The space hawks quickly evaded the tracers. Another group of space hawks, that was providing support over the city came in from the side and used their Gatling cannons to clear the roof of the White house. The fire immediately ceased, but the Secret Service was now alerted. As the transports got closer the Secret Service started shooting at them. Fortunately the space hawks were sufficiently armored to withstand small arms fire.

The space hawks put the troops down at about fifty meters away; they quickly organized and stormed the entrances. They quickly crossed the distance and only lost a few soldiers. The Secret Service agents either were killed or retreated into the White house. The paratroopers followed the secret service into the building and quickly got tangled in close quarters combat. Eventually the heavier weapons and armament of the paratroopers won over the lightweight Secret Service agents.

The troops were divided into two main thrusts, one going for the presidential quarters, and the other for the elevator down to the bunker.

The first thrust succeeded, but as expected the president wasn't there anymore. The second thrust had some trouble because the Secret Service was really putting up a fight. By the time they reached the elevator the president was already down in his bunker, locked and secured. Once that was done, the Secret Service agents on the surface surrendered.

"Damn." Speirs said as he was told that the president fled to the bunker. "Contact HQ and tell them we failed to capture the president." Speirs ordered his radioman. "Alright, secure the area and start cutting through that door, be sure to use gasmasks, the bunker has some nasty defenses."

**0332 AM**

**Situation room, Atlantis**

"Sir, all but one objective completed. We failed to capture the president; he has locked himself into the bunker. General Sink is going to try to talk him out." An aide reported. Now that the staff knew about the coup they were fully committed to help their commanding officers.

"Jack, I guess we should try to get the fleet to move." Admiral Jackson suggested.

"Lieutenant, Establish a connection with all ships in orbit." Jack said as he stood up.

"Done sir."

"Commanders, Generals. As some of you might already know, we, and by that I mean the Joint Chiefs, have started a coup against President Kealty. We decided to take this course after Kealty changed our entire military strategy in a single minute. We also found out he personally ordered the shooting of our own marines at the Alpha site, and we all know what happened afterwards. Now I ask of you to come to the aid of our allies and honor our treaties with them. I ask you to go against the President's orders to stay at your anchorage and make your way over to the Dominion Incursion point. The Sol and a cruiser group are already en-route, as well as alliance fleet units."

"This is not an easy thing. I will also never hold any of you responsible of you do not act now. You are all free to make up your mind. If you want to let the crew decide, do it, they will be in it as well. If some feel uncomfortable doing this beam them down to the surface. All those who are willing to come, depart from this system in twenty minutes. You may transmit me your allegiance, and as long as you do not take action against us we will leave you be, without repercussions."

**White house**

**Elevator shaft**

"General Sink." Speirs said as he saw the general appear through the smoke. The entire shaft was filled with smoke from countermeasures. Not long ago they had finally managed to cut a hole through the thick elevator doors down in the shaft. Speirs' soldiers had already secured the outer perimeter and were at the door to the inner bunker.

"Captain, I want to talk to the president."

"Yes sir. We've got a communication terminal here. We haven't been able to make any contact with those inside the bunker but we know they're listening."

"That's alright, they probably think a captain is too low for them, let's see what they'll do if a general calls for them." Sink said. He walked up to the terminal and pushed several buttons that connected him through to the bunker.

"Mister Kealty, this is General Sink, 101st Airborne Division. Your bunker has been surrounded, your cabinet taken into custody and the rest of the government has been separated and is under quarantine. Now the way I see there are two options for you on how to leave this bunker. Actually there is one, because the other way you'd be blasted into so many pieces we wouldn't be able to find anything even if we'd wanted to. It would also mean the rest in there would be dead as well."

"Mister Kealty, we know about your orders to kill the marines, we know everything. Surrender now and you will be put through a fair trial, unlike General Emerson I might add. You will have the chance to explain your actions and I can give you the guarantees of the Joint Chiefs that you will not be put to death. Life imprisonment, most likely but you'll live, which is a hell of a lot better than the alternative. Being blown up with all of those there with you. I'll give you ten minutes. If you haven't decided by them we'll deploy a high yield, focused bunker buster bomb at this bunker and blow it up."

**Atlantis**

"General Sink is on the line." An aide said.

"Put him on." Jackson said.

"General Sink, what have you got?"

"_Sir, Kealty just came out of his hole, he's agreed to surrender unconditionally."_

"Okay, good job. We'll have him beamed up to the Atlantis brig. Thank you General."

The connection was cut and they soon got confirmation that Kealty was locked down at the brig.

"So what now?"

"We'll declare martial law for now, well lift it after we've dealt with the Dominion invasion and our ships are returning. Then we can gradually turn control back to the civilian government while also commencing voting procedures. Now we need to get the news out at a controlled way." Jackson said. "I'll go round the house of representatives, the high court, Cabinet and senate and inform them of what has happened and what will happen."

"I'll go have a talk with the ambassadors, to let them know we'll be late, but are on our way." O'Neill said.

**1232 hours**

**Bridge, TFS SOL**

**Hyperspace, nearing Dominion incursion point**

"General Carter, we've received a communiqué from Earth." Colonel Cadman reported.

"Read it to me please."

"_From JCOS, Coup successful, Kealty disposed. Reinforcements are underway, ETA 1900 hours."_ Cadman read the short but clear message. Sam figured that they'd use a combined hyperspace window considering the low travel time.

"How long until we exit hyperspace?"

"About five minutes."

"What does telemetry say about the site?"

"They've got a lot of contacts, though they all compare to alliance ship signatures."

"That's good, nevertheless I want all ships to exit hyperspace with shields raised to full and weapons armed and powered."

"Yes sir."

Carter activated her earpiece. "Colonel Marks, I want a line to all ships in the Task Force."

"_You're on ma'am."_

"This is General Carter I'd like your attention for a minute." She waited a few second for everyone to drop what they were doing. Since they left Earth rumors had been going round about a coup or Dominion infiltration of Earth's command structure. "Only minutes ago I received word from the Joint Chiefs of Staff, last night they have executed a Coup against the government of President Kealty. Reasons for the coup are various, among them the imprisonment of General Emerson, the order of shooting marines during the Alpha site riots and many more. Furthermore the fleet is now on its way as well although they may be too late, so our job is to delay the enemy for as long as possible so that the fleet can arrive and save the day, so to say. That is all."

"_Prepare for hyperspace exit, Condition one set, all ready."_ Emerson called in over the PA.

Seconds later the Sol and its four escorting battle cruisers exited hyperspace, weapons at the ready. They were greeted by a friendly sight. Ships from all over the galaxy were already there, most in battle formations ready to engage the enemy. Sixteen battlestars formed an enormous cluster while groups of Free Jaffa ships were scattered around. On occasion a less known ship could be seen, usually from one of the minor galactic powers with technological support from the majors. In total about a dozen battlegroups were present, one Tau'ri, four Colonial and seven made up of Jaffa fleet elements augmented by other ships as well as a pair of improved O'Neill class warships.

"Sir, the Galactica is hailing us. Admiral Adama wishes to speak with you."

"Put him through."

"Admiral Adama, what a pleasure to meet again."

"_A pleasure to meet you to General Carter, though is wish it were under better circumstances."_

"As do it. What can you tell me about the fleet here?"

"_Well, as you can see its quite big, we've got a large contribution from the Free Jaffa fleet. I just received word on the situation on your home world, it is quite disturbing. I hope the rest of your fleet will arrive in time."_

"So do I, can you tell me something about the Dominion's ETA?

"_The Asgard scanners picked them up about half an hour ago and estimates an arrival of 1805 hours your time." _

"Damn, the fleet has an ETA of about 1900 hours."

"_Just in time for the grand finale."_ Adama said.

"What do you mean?"

"_The incoming fleet has been divided into two groups. The first are twelve battle groups, the second however contains four battle groups and a mother ship. It hid behind the other ships so we didn't pick up on them until the Asgard were able to make an accurate scan."_

"I guess that explains why Daniel said this battle would determine the outcome of the war."

"_Is that so? I hope you keep in mind that the ancients usually speak in riddles."_

"You've met an ascended?"

"_Once actually, during a recon mission near Aschen territory."_

"Interesting, you know what, if we survive today we'll swap stories about the Ancients."

"_My pleasure, I'll bring the ambrosia. I've got a bottle of vintage Aquarian hidden somewhere."_

"_General Carter, Admiral Adama, this is Kvasir aboard the Asgard warship Wrath of K'tau, could you spare a moment to discuss our tactical options?"_

"Of course we can Kvasir, I guess we just got carried away."

"_Something which occurs quite frequently for humans."_ Kvasir muttered.

"You wanted to discuss something, go ahead."

"_Yes, I have a suggestion for our tactics. We should use superior firepower to take down their heavier ships. Our escorts can protect the units that are targeting their capital ships. Meanwhile the Colonial air groups will engage any dominion fighters, bombers and gunships and if they manage that they can start harassing the capital ships."_

"How do you suppose we split up our forces?" Carter asked.

"_The Sol is a power in its own right, furthermore the battle cruiser group you brought can be split in two, each battlestar group will gang up on a target and the Jaffa groups can also be split in two each. My ship's computer has already determined a strategy and positions for every ship. Because the Sol will be on its own it can easily be used as a free ship without a fixed position so it can help wherever needed."_

"I can agree with that plan. Who will be in total command?" Carter asked.

"_You will be, you are the highest ranking officer here and the Sol is very well suited for leading a force as big as this." _Adama said. Kvasir only nodded in agreement.

_This will also improve communications as soon as your fleet arrives."_ Kvasir added.

"Very well. Kvasir, could you send the plan to the Sol's Flag bridge and also to all other ships here?" she simply received a nod from the Asgard. "Admiral Adama, does any of your ships have a Special Warfare Raptor Group?" Adama thought about it for a moment before he nodded. "I want you to send them to the Sol, we'll equip them with heavy nukes before we send them away. They will wait for the Dominion mother ship to arrive before attempting to jump within its shield and unleashing the nuke. This will require precise calculations made by either the Asgard warships or the Sol. Perhaps we can take them down the same way we took down the Wraith super hives in the Sol system."

"_I'll have them sent over immediately." _Adama said.

From the biography of General Samantha Carter-O'Neill: 'Astrophysics & Deep space telemetry'.

_For the next few hours we prepared. The Flag bridge was activated and its personnel started updating all systems and preparing for the soon to come chaos. All pilots were given a few hours off before getting their final briefings and pre flight checks. All systems were checked and rechecked one last time. In the Flag bridge, countdowns were started, one for the arrival of the first Dominion group, another one for the arrival of the second Dominion group, and a third for the arrival of the Tau'ri fleet. By now all three fleets were clearly visible on the Asgard sensors, the Tau'ri ships especially since they were breaking about every rule of hyperspace transport in order to reach the incursion point as fast as possible. We threw up a jamming field, hoping to obscure the fleet while they were in hyperspace, but this did give away our position._

_I quickly sent a message to Atlantis detailing them on our situation and our plans. They were surprised to hear that the Dominion had sent a mother ship though that wouldn't matter, we'd have to face them sooner or later. The tension was clearly visible in the flag bridge, throughout the fleet tensions rose to the point where it almost couldn't be contained. Eventually the countdown neared T minus five minutes. As one all fighters and bombers were launched across the entire fleet. Shields were raised, weapons were powered and power was increased to a hundred percent._

**T-2**

**Flag bridge, TFS SOL**

"This is General Carter to all fleet units, may I have your attention. Today we will show the Dominion who we are, we will show them our determination and our courage. In the last twenty five years this galaxy has changed so much, overcome so many obstacles and banded together to form the alliance we are all part of. Today all the blood, sweat and tears we shed will pay off, today we will face our destiny, we will make our brothers and sisters among the stars proud, we shall fight to preserve freedom and if we may die, we will die knowing we did our best to stop the onslaught that is coming. I expect you all to stand your ground and do your duty, I ask no more than that. By being here we've already written history and we will be remembered by those who will come after us. Today we shall go to war!"

For a moment nobody spoke. Then came the battlestars.

"_So say we ALL!" _Adama said. Quickly the other battlestars joined in as well as viper and raptor pilots flying in formation ready to engage the enemy. Eventually everyone joined in on their own way.

Hyperspace windows started to open.

"My fellow warriors, they are here, our day of glory has come. Open fire." Carter said.

As Dominion warships exited hyperspace they were immediately attacked. Several were destroyed before they could raise shields, others were damaged. The Dominion weren't stupid, they'd been conquering galaxies while the ancients were still little amoebas. Their first ships were cannon fodder, just meant to draw the weapons fire away as the real ships exited hyperspace and launched their fighters. All in all almost an entire battle group was taken out without any losses to the alliance side within the first few minutes.

Vipers, F-302's and gliders engaged formations of Dominion fighters. The two groups quickly noticed the other was experienced, the Dominion pilots through the many battles they'd survived and the Alliance pilots through the Cylon, Wraith and Aschen wars, as well as their training. The Colonials fielded a newer variant of the Viper mark 8, the mark 8B, they were an immediate success. Much more maneuverable than the regular 8's and also sporting a much heavier armament. For a change the alliance had a numerological superiority fighter wise, they've always been fighting with the numbers stacked against them.

As the Dominion ships finally organized they started returning fire. Their weapons fire was spread out among all ships which probably saved quite a few from a quick and flashy death.

The Dominion ships quickly caught up to the tactics used by the Alliance fleet and adopted it with deathly efficiency.

"Sir we're losing ships rapidly." Cadman reported.

"Colonel Cadman, the Dominion have a centralized command structure right?" Carter asked.

"Yeah, kind of like the Soviets I guess, little initiative for the little guys."

"Then scan for their command and control ships, if we can target their leadership we might buy ourselves some time."

"The Themistocles just went up." A lieutenant reported. The Themistocles was one of the newer 304 class ships.

"Sir, we've discovered the enemy flagship."

"Show me." Carter said.

A holographic field highlighted the Dominion battle cruiser that apparently controlled all Dominion warships. Unfortunately several other battle cruisers were in a protective formation around it. She only saw one way to get at them and survive.

"Set course for that quartet of light cruisers." Carter said as she pointed out a group of light cruisers slugging it out with two Hak'tyl, neither side seemed to be really wining. "We'll sling around the backdoor and destroy that battle cruiser that way."

"But sir, they'll see us coming from miles away." Cadman said.

"Unless they are distracted." Carter said as she glanced over the map. "Order the Asgard warships as well as Battlestar group 23 to charge the battle cruiser head on, as a distraction, tell them as much so they don't make a suicide attack."

The Sol charged forwards across the lines taking some weapons fire that was meant for another Alliance ship. Once she got in range of the four targeted cruisers she opened fire, two were destroyed before the Sol passed and the other two were destroyed as the Sol dived between the two and delivered a deadly broadside which would make any 18th century admiral proud. She quickly dived behind the enemy formation, nearly unseen.

Meanwhile the two Asgard ships and the four Battlestars made their frontal attack. They grabbed the attention of the Dominion alright. They were pounded from over a dozen ships, most of which of a heavy class.

During all this the Sol managed to sneak behind the enemy flagship and powered its most powerful weapon. In total six turrets bundled their fire into two beams. One targeted the flag ship while the other targeted another battle cruiser, which if the shot would go through would also hit another battle cruiser.

Simultaneously the Sol fired its main guns. The flagship was gutted down the length of the ship, from stern to bow, the beam exited through the front and its power was soaked up by a frigate. The second shot did exactly as hoped, it bored hole through the side of the ship and exited on the other side to slam into the engines of the second battle cruiser, critically damaging it. The battle cruiser was quickly finished off by a loose turret.

The Sol, which had a speed of about one fourth accelerated to military thrust rushing through the debris field of the flagship and exiting the cluster of battle cruisers on the other side. The Sol was lucky, the battle cruisers were already turning trying to engage a new enemy whom they thought had jumped in behind them. This gave the Asgard warships and the Battlestars enough time to make it out.

Now that the Dominion central command structure was taken out and the rest of the ships were turning in circles thinking they'd been ambushed from behind by a large unknown fleet, the Alliance ships managed to recover and continue their attacks. Quickly more and more warships were taken out.

After nearly forty minutes of intense fighting the last of the Dominion capital ships were destroyed. The remaining destroyers and frigates could barely throw a punch at the heavier Alliance ships that went after them.

At last all ships were destroyed, though at a heavy cost. Nearly half the Jaffa contingent was wiped out. Six out of sixteen battlestars were lost, while three others had been too damaged to continue the fight. Two out of five battle cruisers were lost as well.

"Alright people we've only got so much time before the next wave arrives let's get our birds refueled and rearmed and patch up any system we can. All ships are to reform on the Sol." Carter instructed her staff. "Colonel Cadman, how are the SAR missions going?"

"We're beaming out all alliance life signs we can detect."

"Sir, we're receiving a hail from the Mars, its General Chekov." Someone reported.

"Put him on."

"_General Carter."_ Chekov greeted her as the connection was established. He spoke with a thick Russian accent. _"I heard you needed some help!"_

"General Chekov, it's good to hear from you. You couldn't have come at a better time. We're about to have a visit from a mother ship."

"_We're five minutes out, how long until that mother ship arrives?"_

"Five minutes, give or take."

"_Where do you want my ships?"_

"How much you got?"

"_Three full squadrons, each counting five battleships, not to mention the two dozen battle cruisers and other ships."_

"Then I want two squadrons deployed in a single frontal line ready to charge into the enemy formation and I want the third to make a 90 degrees sphere and target the mother ship's forward power relays. The rest is to provide support wherever needed. Be aware, we've got a Colonial raptor unit standing by with high yield nukes ready to jump in the moment we've got a positive lock on the mother ship."

"_That will be done General, see you soon." _Chekov said.

The connection was cut and Carter turned her attention to the holographic projection that showed the battle space. It was littered with scrap from destroyed ships, it was a wonder sensors were still able to determine what was what. It would give them a small advantage, the Dominion sensors would first have to adapt to all the junk flying around meaning that they couldn't open fire straight away, just a few seconds later. The next wave would carry only four battle groups, though that it didn't really matter of there were one or one million, the mother ship was the game changer.

She thought back about the old days, with SG-1, those were the good old times. She then remembered how she felt as she took the Sol and destroyed group after group if Wraith and Vanir ships and wondered if the Dominion commander aboard that mother ship would feel the same after so many victories in other galaxies. She had no more time to think anymore. They were there.

"Hyperspace windows opening." Cadman stated.

"All ships, engage." Carter said.

Seconds later a console beeped and the Tau'ri fleet had arrived. They took a second to orientate themselves before heading out. They were already charging the Dominion war fleet before they could even get out of hyperspace properly. They did good against the battle groups, but the ships attacking the mother ship had no such luck. Within a minute the first 305 was destroyed.

Then the Raptors jumped in, ready to receive the coordinates for the micro jump that would bring them inside the shields. The first raptor jumped, it smashed against the shields and its warhead detonated doing no damage to the mother ship but killing enough outside the shield, friend or foe. The second raptor only jumped seconds later and underwent the same fate.

"Hold all Jumps!" Carter ordered. somehow the Dominion had either anticipated this move or their shield was simply too strong for it to work.

"I want all 305's to line up behind us, we're gonna make a pass and we're gonna keep doing it until we take down that mother ship. All other ships are to take down the rest of the Dominion ships." Carter ordered.

As the other 305's formed up behind the Sol, the Sol powered its weapons, two amazingly bright balls of light formed in front of the ship and kept getting brighter and larger, until they streamed towards the Dominion mother ship. They hit the shields, which rippled under the enormous bombardment, but held. The Sol broke off and flew over the mother ship while the second 305 repeated the Sol's move. Ship after ship repeated the move to no avail. Two more 305's were destroyed.

As the Sol turned around for its third pass it was hit hard by the Dominion ship.

"Sir, Hyperspace engines are overloading." Cadman reported.

"Shit." Carter said. She thought about what to do, Evacuation was the probable thing to do and then set the ship for a collision course for the mother ship. But she thought up another way. "Tell all ships to get out, all fighters are to land on the nearest ship possible. I want the Mars and Jupiter to flank us and prepare to tow us into hyperspace. Then I want engineering to prepare to eject the hyperdrive core and add in a spare ZPM. Once that's done the Mars and Jupiter will tow us out of here."

"Yes sir."

The fighters immediately returned towards the nearest alliance ship that could take them. Other ships started to enter hyperspace for the journey to Caprica, the rally point of the fleet. The Sol, flanked by the Mars and Jupiter made one last attack. As the Sol passed over the mother ship the hyperdrive core was ejected along with a ZPM. The Jupiter and Mars overtook the Sol and immediately opened a hyperspace window, drawing the Sol in with them.

Only about fifteen seconds after the Sol entered hyperspace the core exploded, sending shockwaves everywhere. The ZPM made sure that the blast was big enough to be noticed throughout the galaxy. The explosion distorted subspace in such a way that communications and hyperdrive travel was made impossible. It would be a long time before anyone would dare to enter the region again.

**AN: Well, quite a long chapter, I surprised myself with it.  
AN: I recently found a very detailed map of the twelve colonies, I won't post the link here, if I remember correctly that's made impossible by the site, but if you'd pm me I'll be happy to send you the link.  
AN: So again, I ask you to review, anything helps.**


	10. Chapter 10

**AN: thanks to Rudy Pena and Just a crazy-man for the beta's**

From the biography of General Samantha Carter-O'Neill: 'Astrophysics & Deep space telemetry'.

_Once we returned to Caprica we heard the good news. The Dominion fleet was destroyed alright. The next group of inbound Dominion ships was a week out, but we'd be unable to counter it. We also took a final tally; we lost six 305's and nine 304's. A steep price, but considering what they were up against it could have been much worse._

_The public reaction to the coup was mixed. Some were angry, others were happy. The biggest surprise were the senate and House of Representatives, they called for a vote to impeach Kealty. It passed and new elections were called for by them, instead of the Joint Chiefs._

_Three months later elections were held. John Patrick Ryan, a former marine, CIA analyst and NSA adviser to President Durling. Ryan was running as an independent, not a member of any of the larger parties. He was admired by all parties for simply trying to do what was right, not what would gain him the most political power. Because of this, the voters believed in him, he wouldn't get stuck in the old ways of politics. Because of his former life he knew how to run intelligence and the military, he understood them better than any other president could, which suited the joint chiefs just fine._

_Speaking of the joint chiefs, the day President Ryan was sworn in they offered him their resignation, he refused them all, saying the military needed experience, not political correctness._

_I also moved back to my R&D, President Ryan immediately doubled the military budget, including R&D. within the next six months we came up with several new designs. First was a drone, a copy of the Ancient drones, though less powerful and not as able to penetrate shields, it still packed a hell of a punch, and above all it could be controlled by mind. Second, since we had a drone we needed a new ship, one designed with the space requirements for the storage of massive numbers of drones. This new ship was called a drone carrier and was designated DC-308. The next was the CVZ-309, an honest to god aircraft carrier, with the Z standing for ZPM. Considering the losses would get higher and higher, and possibly even to high for the Tau'ri federation, we designed it with a new fighter in mind. It was already decided we would buy the Viper mk 8B design from the Colonials, and together with them we would design the mk9. Another fighter was the DF-310, a drone fighter, controlled by terminals aboard the carrier. Because there was no need for a pilot and systems required keeping that pilot alive, construction was cheaper, quicker and the fighter was also smaller. The DF-310 was nicknamed the Falcon, after the small and fierce bird. Both the Falcon and Viper would be present aboard the CVZ-309._

_It would take a while before any of the new ships would become active, but construction had already started at several shipyards._

_In the Pegasus galaxy, General Sheppard had his hands full; a month after the invasion of the Milky Way the Dominion fleet arrived in the Ida and Pegasus galaxies. The Asgard would fight the enemy in the Ida galaxy, while the Tau'ri and Pegasus allies would fight the Dominion there. Sheppard only had one battleship squadron, but his fleet was augmented by the Aurora fleet and Traveler ships which were heavily improved after the Wraith war. His aurora fleet consisted of the four Aurora's found in the Cau system and the Tria which was recovered from the void. All Aurora's had full drone magazines due to the Tau'ri's ability to produce ancient technology in limited numbers._

_In preparation for any potential attack, the midway station was expanded and powerful defenses were added. Six trios of turrets were placed around the station. The station was also surrounded by a dozen MDBP's. This was only the garrison force, and usually there were several ships docked._

_The Dominion followed a different strategy in the Pegasus galaxy, they sent in a total of 22 battle groups, spread out over a wide front. They were more on a killing spree then a conquest; they searched out populated planets and destroyed them before moving on to the next. They didn't really form a front line which made it easier for Sheppard to attack them, but also prevented them from slowing down the entire invasion. The Pegasus fleet didn't have enough ships to be present everywhere. Therefore they had decided that every habited planet with less than a hundred thousand inhabitants was to be evacuated and only planets that counted more than a hundred thousand would be defended in force. For the Pegasus galaxy there were few world counting more than a hundred thousand inhabitants. Those who did usually evaded the Wraith somehow or were already refugee worlds from the Wraith attacks._

**Bridge, TFS Tria**

**Near M4X-997**

**November 14, 2023**

The Tria, as well as the other four aurora's in the group were upgraded with the latest Ancient and Asgard technology. Their drones and ancient plasma weaponry was augmented by three beam turrets just like the 305 sported. The Traveler ships were also upgraded with regular Asgard beams like the 304's sported, and rail guns, which was something that remained on all Tau'ri ships.

"Sir, the Willem Barentz has confirmed that Battle group 12 is heading for M4X-997 and will arrive in twenty minutes."

"Thank god we stayed around after our last tangle with them." The commander of the Tria said. The commander was actually a General, namely General Ellis. Ellis was one of the few brigadier or lieutenant generals that carrier the ETA gene, which was essential for operation of the Aurora fleet.

Instead of asking the man what else the Willem Barentz had reported he accessed the communication logs where he quickly found the message. He scanned through it mentally and found what he needed. They hadn't recovered from the last fight and were at about sixty percent strength. If he was lucky he could close the books on this group forever after he'd send them to a flashy death.

M4X-997 was a quite populated planet with nearly 14 million inhabitants, only about half were refugees, the other half managed to grow because of an Ancient defense system. Ellis sent the order for the five aurora's to make the short hyperspace journey to the planet. He also did a quick check on the drone supply. An average of 70 percent was more than enough.

Within minutes the aurora's arrived at the planet. A request for additional information was sent to the Willem Barentz. The Willem Barentz was a LCS-306 ship assigned to shadow battle group 12. Each battle group had a shadow, either a 306, or a converted Traveler ship.

The Aurora's deployed several swarms of drones in advance of the arrival of the Dominion. They didn't have to wait for long.

Only minutes after the Aurora's arrived, the Dominion fleet arrived as well. About forty ships exited hyperspace, nine battle cruisers, twelve cruisers and nineteen escorts.

The drones were quick to strike. Four escorts, a cruiser and even a battle cruiser were severely damaged or destroyed. Additional swarms were launched just as the Dominion started firing back. The Aurora's weren't really maneuverable in a battle against superior numbers. Additional weapons were activated on the Aurora's and they quickly added to the bombardment already ongoing by the drones.

The bridge of each Aurora was silent beside the weapons fire, which was muted. Everyone was controlling his or her station with a brain link. For General Ellis it was magnificent. He had a complete overview of the battle, in HD as it were, and every time something noticeable happened a popup showed what exactly happened.

For the first few minutes it really seemed like a one-sided fight. The Aurora's used their drones for targeting Dominion plasma charges, something regular weapons couldn't do, but a drone could. Eventually the Dominion fleet started to flank the Aurora's making them divide their fire power. The Dominion finally started to make a dent on the shields of the Aurora's. However, the Aurora's were on a roll. Despite the enemy being spread out they still managed to systematically eradicate the Dominion fleet.

They received some help in the form of a battle cruiser, the Pericles, and two Traveler warships. They quickly set to take out some of the smaller ships that kept harassing the Aurora's.

Aboard the Tria Ellis was violently brought back to reality. A power conduit had exploded right outside the bridge and was filling up the bridge with smoke created by a fire. The blast resistant doors were also damaged and could not close properly. DC teams were already on their way to put out the fire and repair any essential systems. In the meantime the bridge doors had to be closed manually. As some of the crewmembers closed the door, the rest used the consoles to continue operations.

The weapons fire from the Tria slacked off a bit, but not too much.

"The remains are attempting to retreat." A lieutenant reported.

"Full ahead, take them out. Tell the Pericles to cut them off and keep them busy until we get there." Ellis ordered.

The Aurora's started to chase the retreating Dominion ships. They left dozens of wrecks behind while some were trailing debris as they tried to escape. The Pericles, though normally unable to take on the amount of ships coming her way, took them on and held them off for a few minutes while the five Aurora's cached up to them and took them out.

"The enemy fleet has been destroyed sir, we are victorious."

"Today anyways. Have Intel search the debris for anything useful. Send a message to PEGCOM informing them that we have taken out Dominion Bravo Gamma 12."

**War Cabinet Meeting**

**Conference room, Atlantis**

**November 21, 10:00 hours**

Ever since President Ryan was elected to office he regularly met with the War cabinet. In comparison to previous war cabinets his was quite large, 15 people. This included the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the secretaries for defense, Treasury and State, the Directors of the TFBI, the TFCIA and the TFSA(Tau'ri Federation Security Agency), and the president and his Chief of staff. Depending on the urgency the cabinet usually met every week or so.

"General O'Neill." The Secretary of State started. "I received a report from your R&D director detailing the possibilities of lending our allies technological support. Would you care to explain?"

"Yes sir. The idea is a sort of Lend-Lease. For well known reasons we can't give the Colonials and Jaffa our most advanced Asgard based technology. We can however share some downgraded technology. I have already spoken to Thor about it and he seems willing to agree with it. It would mean we give them the blueprints and support to construct the weapons and shields we had around 2010. This way we won't risk our current allies turning on us in the future with our own weapons but they will be a lot stronger."

"And who will be eligible for this support?" Ryan asked.

"The Free Jaffa and the Colonials for starters. We should also create a committee to determine other requests for help. This committee should consist of several Tau'ri and Asgard. We do need to limit the technology to those within the Alliance; otherwise we can't supervise the use of the weapons."

"In that case I expect a detailed report within a week. I'll see that it is pushed through Congress." Ryan said. "What else?"

"Sir, we have confirmation on the arrival of three more Mother ships in the galaxy, as well as fourteen battle groups, just last week." Ed Foley, Director of the TFCIA reported. "We have detailed information on all Dominion fleet movements and are coordinating with SUB FLT COM for wolf pack strikes against supply convoys."

"Yesterday, the first Dominion scout ships were spotted near the Cau system. So far it seems that they do not know about the system or our base there." O'Neill said.

"What will be the first important planet to be hit?" Ryan asked.

"A FJN planet, it has mostly been evacuated. It was a former shipbuilding planet for Yu, but lost most of its importance once the nearby naquadah mines ran dry. Since the establishment of the Alliance and the trade it had been in business again." O'Neill said. "The FJN will put up a token defense but most of the industry has been evacuated as well as the population."

"And what'll be hit next?"

"Well nothing really until the Dominion reaches the Aschen territories and the Colonies."

"We can't hold those planets, can we?"

"The Aschen territories are lost. We are currently trying to evacuate them to the evacuation planets but we will only be able to get between 4 and 10 percent off before the Dominion hit. Until then the evacuation fleet is too busy ferrying other civilizations to safety." The secretary of State said. The evacuation fleet was made up by most remaining Ori warships; they had been converted to transports instead of warships because it would be just too costly.

"The Colonies are preparing to fight. As you know the Colonial home system, the Cyrannus system, exists out of four systems. Right now most people live in the Helios Alpha system, especially since the second Cylon war. The Helios Gamma system was nearly completely wiped out safe for Scorpia, but it only has around 400 million inhabitants and the Scorpia shipyards. The Helios Beta system, containing the planets Virgon and Leonis came out pretty safe but is deemed indefensible and will have to be evacuated. The third system, Helios Delta has no defensible positions against an enemy like the Dominion." O'Neill said.

"Ragnar will serve as a hidden repair base for the fleet, and will also facilitate communications in case the Alpha system is somehow jammed. In addition, the Alpha system has an asteroid belt which can be used to establish a perimeter as all planets are located between the belt and the sun. The Colonies have already established several refugee planets on the far side of the galaxy. The Alpha system also houses Caprica, their seat of government, Picon with its fleet HQ and the Colonies of Tauron and Gemenon, the latter was nuked into oblivion during the Cylon war, but with the help of the Asgard over fifty percent has been made habitable again, which will help evacuating all other planets."

"As far as I know the Colonial government hasn't started this evacuation have they?" Ryan asked.

"No, not yet, but they have indicated that they will announce their plans shortly which will also sign its start." The Secretary of state said.

"I could imagine such a revelation would cause quite a shitstorm." Ryan said.

"Yes it probably will. The Colonials have asked us to make a statement giving their plan full support and also military aid when the time comes." State said.

"We already agreed to that, but if they want us to reaffirm our commitment to their defense we will gladly do so. Perhaps we can use the statement to announce the deployment of the eight army and the 21st Army group HQ, the former Aschen territories group to the colonies." Ryan said. The Eight Army would be pulled off from Terra Nuevo, the planet would only be defended by a fleet but it did not possess a large enough population to justify a ground defense. The planet would be lost.

"General O'Neill, How are things going in the Pegasus galaxy?"

"Quite well." O'Neill responded. He also uploaded a file to the war room's servers. "The file I just uploaded is General Sheppard's weekly status report. So far he has made quite some casualties and we can already notice that the Dominion are getting frustrated. The Dominion can't send any reinforcements to the Pegasus galaxy because they know we are building up strength and we will clash one day. The same goes for the Ida galaxy by the way. The way things are going we'll have fewer losses and we'll have finished the Dominion campaigns in the Pegasus and Ida galaxies in time to transfer significant amounts of ships and troops to the Milky Way galaxy.

**Colonial Government press room**

**Caprica City, Colony of Caprica**

**November 25**

"Ladies and Gentlemen, all rise for the President of the Twelve Colonies." someone announced.

The president walked up. "Ladies and Gentlemen, Members of the press and my fellow citizens. Today I dread to announce to you our plan for survival. For weeks, months, even years you have been asking me and my predecessor what we, the Colonial government would do to preserve the Colonial way of live. As some of you have already suspected we cannot defend all the colonies. Our military might is simply not great enough. Our only chance to continue our way of live is to concentrate on one system, and evacuate the rest to new colonies on the other end of the galaxy. For the last several years we've been working together with the Tau'ri to fortify the Helios Alpha system and set up three evacuation planets named Bravo, Delta and Gamma, after the three systems we have to abandon. This will not serve as a divide between all our separate colonies."

"Our military, together with the Tau'ri's and that of the Alliance will fight to the extreme to defend this system. Already the Tau'ri have committed a sizable part of their fleet to our defense as well as a large number of their defense platforms. Our hope is that in the end we have defended this system with such ferocity that the Dominion won't even bother to try and take it, or risk stalling the rest of their advance."

"I understand you are all disappointed. When I took office I promised, with the gods as my witness, to protect all the colonies to the best of my abilities. So have our fighting men and women in the armed services. It pains me that we will lose the other colonies, but it is our only way for survival. We have to be realistic. This war is greater than us alone. It is greater than this galaxy or even this galactic cluster. We have to be glad we can prepare for these events. We can, and we will evacuate every citizen to a safer place."

"Therefore, from today and onwards a state of Martial Law exists in the twelve colonies of Kobol. Evacuations are mandatory. For those who will remain in the Cyrannus system, a general conscription for everyone between the ages of 18 and 25, for an unspecified time is in effect as of now. There will be a total economic mobilization, the Tau'ri have created a law that will permit them to share more advanced technology with us and the Free Jaffa. Beside the upgrades to our current ships we will continue building more battlestars. We will also turn Caprica, Geminon, Picon and Tauron into fortresses, city wide shields, Tau'ri operated Ancient defense systems and the likes."

"Despite the fact that a large part of our population will be displaced for about 80.000 Light-years we will remain one nation. We will continue to fight the Dominion and we will help the Alliance to one day throw out the Dominion and liberate not only our own planets, but all those that are occupied by the Dominion."

"Please remember, that for the last several years, basically since the discovery of the Dominion we have been planning this fight. Together with the Tau'ri and the Alliance we have set up a galaxy wide strategy for dealing with the Dominion. We have done all we could have done to prepare ourselves, and now we can only continue to train and prepare for someday, rather soon possibly, this war will come to our doorsteps." The president said. After a moment of flashing photographers it was over and she walked off.

Behind the stage she was greeted by Vice Admiral Adama. "Good job Laura."

"Thanks Bill." Laura Roslin said. "When are you leaving?"

"Groups 62 and 75 will depart in six hours. We'll be heading for a confrontation with the Dominion scout forces heading in our direction. We'll do anything to slow them down." Adama said. Ever since the Second Cylon war, the two had been involved with each other. Although nothing ever got official they were as much a couple as they could be.

"Be Careful."

"I will. You too." They kissed goodbye and Adama went to catch his Raptor ride up to the Galactica. He still refused to trade in the Galactica for the newer battlestar Tjolver (BSG-75) as his flagship. The Tjolver was a new battlestar and named after the Asgard who stood up for his principles and that way got the Asgard involved in the Cylon war, probably saving the Colonials from heavier losses. The Tjolver was part of the Kobol class battlestars, the newest of the newest. Since the end of the Cylon war over forty of these battlestars had been constructed and they were rapidly replacing the technological inferior Atlantia's and Mercury's, which spent half their time in dry dock being upgraded.

The 62nd and 75th groups made up the fighting part of the fourth Colonial Fleet. A total of nine battlestars carried some of the most experienced commanders and crew of the entire fleet. They were like his family. His son, now Rear Admiral Adama commanded the 62nd battlestar group from aboard the Pegasus (BSG-62), while Commander Thrace was the proud commander of the Tjolver and even though she was not his blood, he considered her the daughter he never had. Fact was that nearly 60 percent of all senior personnel within the forth fleet had at one point served under Adama's command. Other commanders included Commander Shawk of the Valkyrie (BSG-75), Commander Kretz of the Atlantia (BSG-75), Commander Tomlinsen of the Andara (BSG-75), Commander Birger of the Olympia (BSG-62), Commander Thyrnae of the Vicious (BSG-62) and Commander Sorcyntus of the Remembrance (BSG-62).

**122 LY Core wards from the Cau system**

**CIC, Battlestar Galactica, BSG-75, 4****th**** fleet**

"Admiral, the raptors confirm the size and disposition of the Dominion scout group, four destroyers and a light cruiser, about one light year away."

"Calculate FTL jump coordinates. Set condition one throughout the fleet. Prepare for combat the moment we exit the jump."

**Jump**

"Launch alert Vipers."

All nine battlestars had exited the jump in combat formation, surrounding the five Dominion ships. The launch tubes towards the Dominion ships launched vipers equipped with missiles while the other side launched vipers equipped for fighter combat. Immediately the ships' guns fired away. Plasma, missiles and lead was flung at the Dominion shields.

Not much later the vipers added to it all with their missiles and guns. Unprepared to an attack two Dominion destroyers were quickly overwhelmed and were destroyed. The other three warships were able to raise their shields and eventually return fire. Though each Dominion warship had a quite capable armament they did rely on superior numbers to win a battle, and now that they were outnumbered, they were doomed.

The nine battlestars started circling the remaining Dominion ships. This offensive formation was seen as the most effective formation when the Colonials had superior numbers. It allowed for a large broadside to be delivered, almost continuously.

Therefore, it wasn't really surprising that the Fourth fleet could count themselves another victory richer.

**CIC, TFS Davy's Locker (LCS-306)**

**Near Cau system**

The Davy's Locker was part of Wolf Pack 2, a total of 7 Wolf Packs operated out of the Cau base. Each Wolf Pack consisted of 6 ships.

"Colonel, Telemetry confirms fourteen troop carriers, six munitions ships and four escorts. They seem to be heading for the main fleet base in the sector."

"Any word from the commander?"

"The Pack will leave in five minutes, estimated time to combat in about nineteen minutes."

Aboard a LCS in a Wolf Pack a lieutenant-colonel was the highest ranking officer. A Wolf Pack was commanded by a commander.

"Set condition one and prepare for combat, once done copy to the commander."

**Nineteen minutes later**

The six ships exited hyperspace. They didn't waste any time and fired straight away. Instead of targeting the Dominion warships they went for where they could do the most damage in the least amount of time. The troop transports were barely protected by shields and were favorite targets. The munitions ships were a little bit better protected, though could not be compared to real warships.

The Davy's Locker exited in the center of the formation and sped forwards at max sub light. They were lucky as there was a troop transport straight in front of them. Its three Asgard plasma weapons fired away creating holes in the shields and damaging the hull. After the first salvo troop compartments were vented into space and hundreds, perhaps thousands of Dominion warriors were killed in the vacuum of space.

Railguns all across the ship engaged other targets as they passed by. Light damage was done to two other ships before they had to end their pass. They turned around to make another pass. This time the troop transport was finished off, while another troop transport was seriously damaged. By the time they finished the second run they were taking serious fire and the commander ordered them all to bug out.

**40 LY core wards from the Cau system**

**CIC, TFS Davy's Locker**

The six ships from Wolf Pack 2 had all returned to the rally point. Figures were in and it looked pretty good.

"Sir, eight transport ships destroyed, three others damaged, all three munitions ships were destroyed as well. We lost no ships although one ship had an overload which killed fourteen." A lieutenant reported.

"That's almost as good as can be."

A console started beeping heavily.

"What's that ensign?" The Colonel asked.

"Sir, we're picking up massive hyperspace disturbances."

"Dominion?"

"Must be. But they're not heading for their Fleet base."

"Where then?"

"The middle of nowhere sir. Wherever they're heading it has no planet or other objects."

"Cross check it with Alliance ship deployments." The colonel said.

"On it sir." The ensign tapped away at his console and a few minutes later he got the results. "Sir, the Colonial Fourth Fleet recently attacked a Dominion scout force there. I'm uncertain if they are still there but that is the only thing of worth there."

"Get on the line with the Commander; we need to warn the Fourth fleet."

**120 LY Core wards from the Cau system**

**CIC, Battlestar Galactica, BSG-75, 4****th**** fleet**

The Admiral and his XO were doing the post op reports. They looked up as they saw some people come through the hatch. Namely three persons, one carrying a camera, another carrying a sound boom and the third led the other two straight down to the Admiral.

"I'll be damned." Adama muttered.

"What the frack?" Tigh replied.

"Admiral Adama?"

"Who the hell are you?"

"Admiral, I'm Marlene Aubernack from the Colonial Broadcast Services. The Admiralty allowed me and my crew to make a documentary about the fleet already engaged with the Dominion."

"Ah… I heard about you guys. Ready to…" Tigh said.

"Colonel." Adama warned his XO.

"Admiral, from what I heard and saw I can only assume we were victorious."

"That's correct."

"Could you tell me something about the battle? How hard was it? What where our casualties?"

"Hmph." Tigh snorted. "It was a one sided slaughter."

"We took down five Dominion vessels that were part of a recon group. Because of our superior numbers and tactics we were able to destroy the scouts without many casualties."

"Admiral, I don't know how much specifics you have on the defense plan but what chance do you give it?"

"If it works we will have a reasonable chance. We'll sustain heavy casualties for sure. But with the help from our allies we will have a fair chance to survive."

"Nevertheless the government is evacuating billions of people to the other end of the galaxy."

"Of course we are. We shouldn't put all our eggs in one basket. As in life, in war there are no certainties and we also need to be prepared in case we cannot hold the Dominion back."

"Admiral! We're receiving a priority message from Tau'ri wolf pack 2."

"What does it say?" Adama asked.

Before the lieutenant could respond the DRADIS console started beeping and only seconds later the ship was hit hard.

"DRADIS alert! Dominion fleet right on top of us."

"Launch all vipers, establish defense barrier and get us in a defensive formation!" Adama ordered.

"It's a mother ship with escorts!" Tigh said after he had a look at the DRADIS console.

"Cancel the Viper Launch and get the alert Vipers back aboard. Prepare for an emergency jump." Adama ordered.

"Recovering the launched Vipers will take up to two minutes sir."

"Order all ships to initiate emergency jump now, we will take all the vipers and then we will jump." Adama said. "Turn Galactica away from the Dominion fleet, Flank speed, let's increase the distance."

Around that time the CBS girl tried to interrupt. "Admiral."

"Shut the frack up or I'll have you thrown in the brig." Adama said.

First to jump was the Andara; it was soon followed by the Vicious, Olympus, Valkyrie and Remembrance. After some debating the Atlantia and Pegasus also left leaving only the Tjolver and Galactica.

"The Tjolver hasn't left yet sir."

"Get me Tjolver Actual." Adama said as he picked up a phone.

"Starbuck you have your fracking orders, now jump your ship the frack out."

"_With all due respect Admiral, your shields suck, mine are top notch."_

"Which is exactly why we will need your ship later on. Besides, if that mother ship brings its main weaponry to bear neither of our ships will survive for very long." Adama said. As Thrace didn't respond he continued. "Therefore you will jump out and I will recover our vipers, we don't leave a man behind."

By the time the two were about done the last viper had crossed the threshold and was secured on the deck. Within seconds both battlestars jumped out.

**Cimmeria**

**December 2, 2023**

**17:22 hours**

As the war raged on in the galaxy, Cimmeria was also in the path of the Dominion advance. Already months in advance diplomatic teams had arrived at the planet in order to get them to agree with a resettlement. Because they didn't want to ruin the Cimmerians believes they had to pretend they were emissaries of the Asgard and that they had ordered them to evacuate. A problem arose when they came to the point of resettlement. They couldn't just be redeployed to any refugee world, because their believes and their culture would be crushed. Therefore they were relocated to a planet which was divided, kind of like a wild life reserve, the territory they would get was not large but it was sufficient to sustain them and it was suitable to their culture. Historians and social researchers had worked together with engineers to make the buildings match those on Cimmeria itself.

The 45.000 inhabitants of Cimmeria and the two light infantry brigades that occupied Cimmeria were in the process of evacuating. The civilians would go first, after which the soldiers would depart. Even though the Tau'ri tried to maintain the culture of the Cimmerians they did need to protect them. Therefore it was decided that two light infantry brigades, which didn't poses anything scary like vehicles or airplanes were to be garrisoned on the planet. The Cimmerians knew about their existence but never came to the army barracks. The soldiers regularly visited the Cimmerians and had good contacts with them.

All of the Cimmerians were evacuated by ship, and not just some Tau'ri made transports, but real Asgard Chariots, AKA Beliskner class warships. Most of the Beliskners were old and outdated, unable to compete with the much newer O'Neill II warships and were subsequently retired. Fortunately the Tau'ri were able to get the Asgard willing to turn a couple over to them for among others evacuating planets from the PPT.

Because of the increased threat and evacuation a company of soldiers was permanently resided in the main village near the stargate. Today, another ship was lifting off with a load of civilians aboard. Only one load was left and they would be picked up the next morning. After that three Tau'ri transport ships would come and pick up the Tau'ri forces and evacuate their camps. One platoon guarded the stargate while two others were helping the Cimmerians evacuate and the fourth was patrolling the outlying villages for anyone who wanted to stay behind.

At the stargate first platoon guarded the area. One squad was at the stargate itself, while the rest of the platoon was on over watch duty in the immediate area. The stargate usually opened twice a day for regular checks and the likes. Today, the stargate opened up for the third time. The soldiers were immediately on their guard but didn't expect any Dominion activity, there was after all no reason to expect it, and it wasn't Dominion routine.

So when four Dominion warriors walked through the puddle their reaction was delayed a few seconds. A few seconds which were fatal. The twelve men were quickly hit by deadly Dominion plasma shots. The four Dominion warriors stepped forwards to allow other warriors to come through and immediately came under fire from the rest of the platoon, which had gone into defensive positions. The first four were quickly killed, but the time needed to penetrate the armor of the warriors allowed for twelve others to get through and find cover.

The lieutenant of first platoon quickly realized that the situation was getting out of control and radioed his leader for reinforcements. Within minutes the other three platoons were on their way to the stargate, while the rest of the battalion started on their journey to the stargate as well. Meanwhile, because of the distance to the stargate all other forces were made ready for deployment.

Two hundred meters form the stargate, Lieutenant Jackson commanded his platoon in combat. He had established effective fields of fire; heavy machine guns were laying down fire on the stargate, cutting down over half the Dominion warriors that got through. The riflemen cut down any Dominion that was out of cover for more than a few seconds. RPG equipped soldiers and soldiers with grenade launchers did their best to reduce all possibilities for cover. What worried him was the Dominion forces here contacting the other Dominion on the other side of the wormhole. He had seen over a dozen warriors sacrifice themselves in order to protect another warrior with much more decoration. This warrior was in good cover and therefore nearly untouchable.

What troubled him was that he had sustained quite some casualties. Beside the twelve men at the stargate he had lost another six while about a dozen or so had to be evacuated because of the injuries sustained. So far he knew the rest of his platoon had been injured in one way or another. He himself could only use his right hand because a wood splinter had pierced his left after a tree had exploded from a hit by a Dominion plasma rifle. Because of this it meant he could kill less Dominion and the Dominion were quickly advancing.

He couldn't retreat, he was located on top of a hill and to reach the next bit of good cover he would have to cover four hundred meters of open land, with the Dominion hot on his ass, such a thing would be impossible without cover fire. He had to wait for another platoon to arrive and then evacuate his wounded after which the still mobile forces could retreat under the cover fire of a third platoon. There was however one problem with that, he had no idea when the other platoons would arrive and the Dominion were already ducked down at about 50 meters from his position.

All around him little pieces of dirt and rock were thrown around as Dominion weapons fire impacted against it. His soldiers were under fire as well and were taking quite a beating. Nevertheless, they returned fire and managed to inflict heavy casualties. His soldiers were equipped with the standard M-700 assault rifle but also more traditional earth weapons such as M249's, M9's, M82's and many more.

"Command, this is Lieutenant Jackson of first platoon. I really need some support now."

"_Lieutenant Jackson, this is Eagle six, second and third platoon are five minutes out, Mortar cover will be established in thirty seconds. UAV cover is online."_

"That may not be in time, we're on the verge of being overrun."

"_Just hang in there son, help will be there shortly."_

"Copy." Jackson said. It was all he could say; arguing wasn't going to get the reinforcements there quicker.

He heard the first mortars coming in. they were air exploding mortars, though considering the tough armor the Dominion used it wasn't always effective. Nevertheless, like medieval knights there were enough holes in their armor for the small splinters to get through and cause some damage. At least it slowed the Dominion down and allowed him to take a peak over the large boulders he was hiding behind.

From the gate all up to the positions of his soldiers the ground was covered with dead and dying Dominion soldiers. More and more mortar rounds exploded, now there were also some regular mortars tearing apart bodies and the likes. He brought his rifle up to the edge and aimed carefully for an advancing soldier, he aimed for the neck, one of the places that were weak on armor and deadly at the same time. He snapped off two shots and instantly killed the soldier. He quickly switched to another, much closer target which was also advancing on his position and fired off a dozen shots before taking cover again.

He could hear the extra weapons fire fly over his head as he ducked down. His communications specialist beside him had his shoulder in a bandage and was sitting on the ground. He took a tablet screen and downloaded the stream from the UAV overhead. The UAV showed Dominion forces streaming out of the gate and also a large group advancing behind the gate, where his troops seemed to have been overrun. He seriously considered sounding the retreat, but his wounded soldiers wouldn't be able to get far and be mowed down before they crossed the open ground behind their positions.

He used one of the cameras to search for the other platoons that should be close by. He found them quickly and saw that they were only a minute or so away, they only had to cross the open ground between his position and the tree line on the other side. He brought the camera back to the stargate and searched for the Dominion commander he had seen earlier. He quickly found him ducked behind a bunch of boulders communicating with someone. It gave him an idea and he quickly communicated with his superiors. Soon enough he had targeted the commander with a laser beam from the UAV and someone else launched a guided missile. It first made its way up before moving horizontally and eventually straight down on the commanders head.

The explosion devastated a wide area, or so it seemed. But when the smoke cleared he could see the commander still there, apparently protected by a small portable shield. All the explosion did was clear the area of a lot of dead and some cover. Fortunately another platoon reached his position.

"Lieutenant Jackson, what's the situation?" Lieutenant Anderson, Platoon Leader of 2nd platoon asked.

"The southern flank is gone, the rest is in shambles and needs to be evacuated, Can you provide cover?"

"Yeah sure, we'll keep 'em off while you get your guys out of here and once we get the message you're safe we'll fall back under cover from third platoon.

**14****th**** Light infantry Brigade HQ**

**13 miles from the Stargate**

"Sir, First and second platoon have been withdrawn; we no longer have a direct line of sight on the stargate." A lieutenant reported to Brigadier General Paul Pearson. Pearson was the commanding officer of the 14th Light Infantry Brigade and because he had seniority over Brigadier General Laura Weitz of the 44th Light Infantry Brigade he also commanded all troops on Cimmeria.

"What are our casualties?" Pearson asked.

"Twenty four dead, forty wounded of which twelve serious. Sir, when will the reinforcements arrive?" The Lieutenant asked after a slight delay.

"They won't. In two days our transports will arrive, along with a 304 and a few 306's to cover our withdrawal." Pearson said. "Until then we need to hold out."

"It'll get messy for sure."

"Yeah, but we're infantry, we'll survive. As long as the skies stay clear we'll get out of this."

"And the civilians?"

"We'll secure them in the shelters. If need be, we'll blow the entrances and the 304 will beam them out in two days."

A private came up to Pearson and saluted him. As Pearson returned the salute the soldier started talking. "Sir, third battalion reports about a hundred civvies hold up at Thor's Hall of Wisdom, their main temple and the Dominion force is rapidly closing in."

"Why haven't they left?"

"They think Thor will come and rescue them in his chariot and if they leave he might not find them." The private explained. "Sir, the Dominion are really close and might be there within five minutes."

Pearson consulted the maps that showed where his units and those of the Dominion were located. "Have third battalion send their reserve company to get them all out, drag them if need be but I want them out of there, I don't need a massacre this early on."

**Near Thor's Hall of Wisdom**

As the soldiers of H-company neared the temple they heard screams and Dominion weapons fire. The first troops rushed forwards taking out the few dominion outside the temple. Apparently they had caught the advanced guard on a little killing spree while taking a rest. While most of the company created a perimeter around the temple about thirty soldiers took up positions near the entrances. At a command they blew the doors and stormed in. most of the civilians were on their knees praying to Thor. The Dominion were taking their time executing the civilians one by one. In total about a dozen Dominion were present, they were quickly killed and the civilians secured.

The Lieutenant in charge walked to the front of the temple and took off his helmet. "People, I need you all to prepare to leave this temple and head for our base. It is not safe here anymore and it is not a request, it is an order." A few started protesting but the lieutenant didn't listen to them. Outside he reported to his captain who was about to order second platoon to secure the way back to their lines when Dominion weapons fire impacted all around them. They both ducked down and took cover. Around them the other soldiers took cover as well and started returning fire. Around the temple a low stone wall created a natural perimeter for the troops.

"First platoon; take the east side, head of the brunt of the attack! Second platoon, south and west side. Third platoon north side and put some men in that tower. Fourth platoon try to get to our own lines to prep for an evacuation of the civvies." The Captain quickly ordered.

The soldiers tried as well as they could to execute the orders but were hindered by the constant fire overhead. For the next ten minutes the soldiers fought back and eventually they all reached their designated positions. Fourth platoon tried multiple times to reach their own lines but were constantly cut off by Dominion forces. After an hour of intense fire the Dominion forces ceased their attacks on the soldiers and established a strong perimeter.

As night felt the Dominion tried time after time to overrun the defenders but were unable to do so. Throughout the night the defenders clearly had the advantage due to their night vision goggles. The Dominion did posses their own kind of night vision but it was quite vulnerable to tracer rounds fired by machine guns.

In the morning the dominion resumed their attack with vigor. During the night they apparently had managed to bring in some artillery and armor. During the Dominion attack, which seemed to focus on the troops at the church, long range laser guided mortars were sued to take down the Dominion armor. It took a few hits since every tank was equipped with a moderate shield. Eventually the tanks were taken out, but the damage was done. Large parts of the defenses created were blown away and dozens were dead or wounded. The temple itself had sustained quite some damage as well.

Under the cover of the tanks, Dominion warriors could advance almost unopposed and only after intense hand-to-hand combat were the Dominion forces repealed. Eventually over half the company was taken out and things didn't look good. Water and rations were running out as well as ammunition for weapons still using bullets. Even worse, the medicines were running out. In the absence of a surgeon, the best they could do was use nanite stimulation packages which would temporarily keep a patient alive.

"Captain." A Private said as he crawled into the foxhole his CO had occupied.

"What is it?"

"We may have found a way out. During the shelling a certain part was opened up and we've found a secret passageway. The local minister translated the writing and it says it lead to an old monastery about fourteen miles away."

"How big is it?"

"Not so large, single file. But it has some sort of sled that can be pulled by someone from the other side, or so it seems."

"Alright, thanks. Tell the civvies to prepare for departure." The Captain said.

The captain contacted HQ and found out that the monastery was still under their control. Minutes later they found out that the tunnel was in fact working and could be used. Immediately the civilians were sent in as well as the wounded. Unfortunately the dead would be left behind.

**Midway station**

**April 12, 2024**

Sheppard resided in his office, a place he'd rather not be. His current guest was his good friend Ronon Dex. Ever since the Tau'ri's return to the Pegasus galaxy Ronon had been in command of a Tau'ri Special Forces group specialized in sabotage and behind the lines warfare. Together with a flotilla of specialized 306's and jumpers he had managed to wreck havoc behind enemy lines. His current rank was lieutenant Colonel and he refused to take a promotion, fearing the bureaucracy would take all his time away. Nevertheless, there wasn't much work for him anymore in the Pegasus Galaxy. Mere days ago the last Dominion group was taken down while they attempted an invasion of a major alliance member's home world. Only just now had the ascended been able to confirm that all Dominion forces were routed from the galaxy and no more were underway.

"Look Sheppard, I'm not taking a desk job." Ronon said for the umpteenth time.

"It's not a desk job!" Sheppard responded in kind. "All you think I want for you is a desk job. But in fact, a desk job is what you'll get if you stay here. If you take the promotion and become an instructor you can go out with the men as much as you want, on occasion you'll probably see combat but you will still have all the adventure. Some of your skills, such as tracking are desperately needed in the Milky Way galaxy. Furthermore, I am positive that you will be assigned an assistant who will deal with all the paperwork." Sheppard paused for a minute as he walked through his office. "Hell, I'll make it a part of the deal if you want me to; high command is so interested in your skills that they are more than willing to get you an assistant. And if they don't, I'll come and be your assistant." Sheppard joked.

"Can I have that on paper?"

"Yeah sure Chewie."

"Okay, I'll do it."

"Thanks Ronon." Sheppard said as he led his friend to the door. His next appointment was already waiting for him. "General Ellis. Come in." Sheppard said as he did the thumbs up to his secretary.

"General." Ellis responded. He walked into the office and joined Sheppard near a window overseeing the docks of the midway station.

The docks were packed, only hours ago General Ellis' Aurora fleet had arrived and the five ships were safely anchored at a specially designed pier near the outskirts of the dock. Also present were a battleship squadron and several cruiser groups as well as several 306's. Some more ships were present, mostly traveler ships but also a ha'tak and even a battlestar. Also present was a group of transports carrying over forty thousand marines from the first and sixth marine divisions. On the piers there were dozens of fighters and transports strapped down.

"Impressive isn't it?" Sheppard said. "I still get the chills when I look at it all. You know, if we had all that twenty years ago, the Wraith would never have risen to power and done so much destruction. And all those people we have lost would still be here."

"Yeah. But honestly, without the Wraith we wouldn't have had the need for those 305's and we'd be fighting the Dominion with 304's."

"True." Sheppard replied. "But on to why you are here. You probably haven't heard yet and news hasn't broke out, but the Dominion made an attack on the Colonies."

"Now already? I thought they wouldn't attack until somewhere in October, November?"

"So did we. But apparently they found out about the evacuation and decided it was time to make a mess of it. The attacked the planets that were still in the process of being evacuated. Casualties are high and the Colonials are scared to death about another attack. Therefore President Ryan has decided to send in the fleet ahead of schedule. All you see out there will go straight to the Colonies. The bulk of our evacuation fleet will also be sent in to help speed up the evacuation."

"Christ, what have the ancients said about it?"

"Nothing, they somehow can't say anything about it and that worries me. Nevertheless, it's quite simple, take the fleet and bring it to our Caprica fleet base."

"Yes sir. What about repairs? We have taken some damage lately."

"You can do them while you make your way over to the colonies and they will also help you if there is something you can't do yourself. We are also shipping large amounts of drones to the storage facilities there."

"Yes sir, when are we scheduled to depart?"

"In four hours, we want you out there as soon as possible."

**Colonial Government press room**

**Caprica City, Colony of Caprica**

**April 12**

Both president Roslin and President Ryan walked up on the stage. Roslin was first to walk up to the microphones.

"Ladies and Gentlemen, members of the press, my fellow citizens." Roslin started. "Today at approximately 0400 hours Caprica city standard time several Dominion battle groups executed attacks on our evacuation efforts. This was a coordinated attack and therefore casualties are high. So far it seems that the attacks were meant to do damage and kill as much as possible in an as short as possible time. Early estimates are near the fifteen million dead and over forty transport ships gone. Therefore the evacuations are sped up and all means will be used to speed this up as long as it doesn't damage production or military operations."

"Our allies have once again given their support to us in these difficult times. As it is, President Ryan of the Tau'ri is here to reassure us all of their commitment to our survival."

"Thank you Madam President." Ryan said as he took his place in front of the microphones. "Again the Twelve Colonies have asked the Tau'ri Federation for help, and once again we give you our full support. As it is Tau'ri fleet units are heading for the colonies, these units include the Aurora fleet, the Third battleship squadron from Pegasus, the sixth, seventh and eight battleship squadrons and numerous cruiser fleets. Also underway are the first and fourteenth armies to support the eight army already here. The first and sixth marine divisions are underway from the midway station and more army units are on their way as well. Another twelve ZPM's have already been transferred to the central storage unit on Caprica for use in powering some of the advanced defenses. Furthermore, for over two years we've been helping the Colonial military with setting up a defense of this system, this includes an undisclosed amount of MBDP's. The Tau'ri Federation stands squarely behind the twelve colonies and we will do anything in our power to help you and see you survive this war."

"Over time our two nations have helped each other when necessary, the Second Cylon war, and the Wraith attack on Earth and during the Aschen wars. Our two nations are friends on every level imaginable and together with the other races in this galaxy we are undefeatable, that's for sure. The Tau'ri troops in this system will fight as if it were the Sol system and Earth's survival was on the line. With our help, the power of a single battlestar has increase a hundred times, by combining your Viper and Raptor designs with our fighter designs our fighter strength has quadrupled. United we stand together to face all our opponents and we will never back down to any foreign power trying to harm us, our friends or those who cannot defend themselves."

"I simply cannot stress enough how much we value the friendship between our two nations, how much we want to help you and see you survive what is coming to the colonies. Thank you all and know that you are in our hearts and minds."


	11. Chapter 11

**AN: chapter 11, thanks to Rudy Pena and ****Just a crazy-man for the beta, from next chapter onwards it will be a crossover between all Stargate series together with those already in the story.  
**

**Gate room, Atlantis**

**Moon, Sol System**

**May 11, 2024**

**1000 hours**

Colonel Cadman, the commander of the Atlantis base awaited the arrival of someone important from the FJN. She was accompanied by Ry'ac, the FJN ambassador to the Tau'ri. Ry'ac was quite insistent on an immediate meeting with a high ranking Tau'ri, for what he couldn't say. All he got was Colonel Cadman.

As they waited for the stargate to open they made some Smalltalk. The stargate was still the original one from the Pegasus galaxy. Since the newer Tau'ri designed stargates went into use this one saw much less action. It was still used several times a day but it was nothing compared to the activity on some of the busiest days years ago. The stargate started spinning and after all seven chevrons were locked it engaged.

"_Free Jaffa IDC received and confirmed."_ Someone announced.

"Lower the shields. Tell them they're cleared." Cadman replied.

The shield was lowered and a well known female Jaffa stepped through along with four guards, two male, two female.

"Ishta. It is a pleasure to see you again." Ry'ac said.

"It is good to see you as well. Your father sends you his regards."

"Thank you. How are my father and Master Bra'tac doing?"

"They are doing well. They're both under pressure by the war and the traditionalists, but all in all they're fine."

Cadman, getting a bit bored by the family reunion, coughed to get their attention.

"Ah, Sorry Colonel I got a bit carried away. Please meet Free Jaffa councilor Ishta, wife of Teal'c. Ishta, please meet Atlantis base Commander Colonel Cadman."

"Welcome ma'am."

"Thank you Colonel. Please forgive me and I don't want to sound rude, but is there someone more senior I could talk to?" Ishta said.

"I'm sorry but I'm all you're gonna get for now. But if you can convince me that someone more senior need to be brought in I will do so. Both generals Landry and O'Neill are on base."

"Very well. Is there somewhere private to retreat to?"

"Yes, let's go to my office." Cadman proposed. She led the two Jaffa up on the stairs and through the control room and into her office. She offered two seats to the Jaffa and then took her own seat behind the desk. She used her computer to make the office more private. The windows became nontransparent and active countermeasures were activated. "Alright, we're all private now."

"Thank you. Well, I don't know where to start." Ishta started.

"Just take it from the beginning." Ry'ac said.

"As you know since the fall of the Goa'uld and the creation of the Free Jaffa Nation we have been busy with freeing Jaffa used as slaves on primarily human planets. Most of these human civilizations were abused and enslaved by the Goa'uld and once they fell, the Jaffa remained and were the targets of retributions. We always try to do this in a diplomatic way, offering tribute and aid in turn for either a free passage for the Jaffa or for fair rights for the Jaffa to remain on the planets. Usually this works out and once in a while a small show of force is enough to make them agree to release the Jaffa. Most of these planets are located in neutral or Free Jaffa territory or in our sphere of influence, but a few are located in those of others. A week ago, we received word that a planet, know to us as P33-222 had once again refused several quite generous offers."

"Wait a minute; isn't P33-222 located in Tau'ri territory?" Cadman asked.

"Yes it is, which is why we made so many offers to resolve it peacefully. Eventually a member of the lower council decided to make a visit to the planet, hoping that a higher ranking person would persuade them. Unfortunately the Traditionalists managed to get one of their own members sent. The Jaffa had an escort of twelve warriors but it all went bad very fast. In total only four Jaffa returned, what happened to the rest is unknown."

"And you want us to solve this?" Cadman asked.

"Yes."

"You should have told us right from the start what you were doing there. It might not have made much of a difference but at least we would have been in the loop."

"I know, and that is why it is so difficult for us to ask you for help now. But you need to intervene; the Traditionalists are going crazy about this and are talking about an invasion to evacuate all Jaffa."

"Alright, I'll get a call out to the Director of Stargate Operations for the Milky Way galaxy. General Myers will evaluate your request and I think he will send in some units to work this out. Why don't you go to the conference room and wait for him, he'll be here shortly." Cadman said.

"Thank you Colonel." Ry'ac said.

"You're welcome."

Ry'ac led Ishta out of the office and towards the conference room. Meanwhile Cadman went to call General Myers.

A few minutes later Cadman entered the conference room.

"We'll, it seems that General Myers is otherwise occupied. He has put me in charge for now, I'll send SG-4 in as a possible mediator and to asses our options. We have some information about these people and we'll get through that first. The CO and XO of SG-4 will be here shortly to be briefed as well.

A few minutes later the CO and XO of SG-4 as well as a member of the cultural department arrived in the conference room. These days a standard SG team consisted of twelve to sixteen soldiers allowing for more flexibility and support.

"Professor Klein, you have had a chance to read into the situation?"

"Yes I have. So far it seems that the civilization is deeply based on the Ancient Romans, though quite a bit more aggressive in diplomacy and several other areas. Their technological base is about that of the second or third century AD. The stargate is located near their capital city and has a daylight guard of praetorian guards. They allow free entrance to the country but one is warned not to break any of their laws or face the consequences. Their army is made out of a volunteer force, with high training and the best equipment they can get. The soldiers are fiercely loyal to their emperor and will die for him. Tread cautious when approaching them, they are very strict on protocol and respect for their superiors is everything. Try to get in their favor, give them tributes or, though I won't recommend it, fight as a gladiator and win. Winners in those matches are treated as gods and therefore can get favors with the leadership."

"We won't have to worry about that, none of my men are crazy enough to go play gladiator." SG-4's CO said.

"What could have happened to the nine Jaffa that didn't return?" Cadman asked.

"If they haven't been killed during their capture they would either have been sold as slaves for hard labor or killed in the arena." Klein said.

"And the female Jaffa?" Ishta asked.

"Slavery, probably as prostitutes or executed as an appetizer for the arena fights. To them, women don't have the same rights as men and being in a combat unit would not have gone over smoothly with them."

"I've got five females on my team, how much more danger is in it for them this mission?"

"As long as you keep it a diplomatic mission it might even serve an advantage since they can more freely speak with the local women. But once the mission becomes violent you need to get them out of there immediately. You simply do not want them there once the shit hits the fan."

"How about orbital support?"

"No joy, we don't have anything available and even if we would reroute a 306 it would still take a few days. This planet is on the other side of the galaxy, the safe side. We don't have that many ships there since the Dominion invaded." Cadman said. "Look if you want I can get five men from SG-12 to change with the five females of your unit."

"We'll have to take the risk; they might be able to mingle with the local females. Is there a possibility to take a subspace emergency beacon?"

"I insist on it. You can use armor piercing rounds for your side arms, you're gonna need it against the armor they will have. I want you to update all your subspace locater beacons and I want you to wear full body armor for this one." Cadman said.

"Is there any chance for me to come along? My knowledge might come in handy." Professor Klein said.

"Not a chance. Perhaps, after SG-4 has determined that it is safe enough to bring you in but we first need to know how save it is for us." Cadman said.

"Ma'am if there isn't anything else I want to return to my men to prepare them for this mission."

"Please do, you'll leave in four hours. I'll have a couple of jumpers on standby if you need them." Cadman said.

Four hours later the fourteen members of SG-4 were assembled in the gate room. They were talking among one another and checked their equipment. They all knew the danger of the assignment; especially if it all went wrong but accepted it as part of the job. The stargate started dialing and one by one the seven chevrons locked and engaged. Eventually the gate opened and the soldiers got in formation.

"SG-4, you're cleared to go through, good luck and be careful." Cadman said from the control room.

The CO, a Major turned around and gave her the thumbs up before stepping through the gate as the first one.

**P33-222**

A guard of about forty soldiers guarded the gate. As soon as SG-4 got through the gate a local leader approached them.

"Greetings travelers, I am Centurion Ramel of the Praetorian Guard."

"Thank you Centurion. I am Major Eisman from the lands named Earth. I come here to enter negotiations. These thirteen men and women are my close friends and under my command."

"Welcome to the lands of Rome, Major, is it some kind of military rank?"

"Yes it is, it can be compared to yours actually, though the number of men I command differs greatly at times."

"I see. May I inquire to the nature of the negotiations?"

"We were recently contacted by one of our allies that some of their warriors came here for various diplomatic reasons. For a reason unknown to us not all of them returned. We wish to find out what happened to them and perhaps return them to their lands peacefully."

"I think I know of whom you speak, their crimes are great and sentencing has already been past days ago. They proved to be valiant fighters in the arena."

"Are they still alive?"

"Some of them are. Those who survived the arena were sent to the mines." The Centurion proudly said.

"I wish to speak with the magistrate right away." Eisman said.

"You are quite insistent. Why do you care so much for those dogs? They and their entire race is a scourge, a scourge that enslaved us for centuries."

"They are our allies. And they didn't enslave you, parasites called the Goa'uld enslaved you, they merely used the Jaffa as their puppets." Eisman said. "Besides, for the moment the Jaffa have been very patient with your people. Their patience is running out and instead of going in themselves they asked us for help, not wanting to escalate things even more."

"Very well. I will escort you to the city, if the Magistrate will hear you is another case."

The next twenty minutes they walked to the impressive city. It clearly reminded them of scenes from movies set in the ancient roman times. They had left four soldiers at the gate to facilitate radio contact with earth through the stargate. They walked through the gates of the city walls and followed the centurion to the magistrate's residence. Along the way they were looked at with interest, apparently their armor and weaponry made quite an impression. Eventually they reached the magistrate's residence; they were not allowed to enter with weapons. Eisman and two other soldiers gave their weapons to the other soldiers, who remained outside. They went inside with the tributes they had taken.

For hours Major Eisman and the magistrate talked. They exchanged courtesies and Eisman delivered the tribute. Eisman told a very interested magistrate about the Tau'ri federation and what it stands for, its history, especially the roman part, and Eisman also told him about the Dominion war. It appeared that both men had two children, and they were all serving in the military, Eisman's boy and girl in the 1st marine division and 49th armored division respectively and the magistrate's two sons were serving in the Praetorian Guard.

After a while Eisman broached the sensitive topic of the Jaffa. Eisman tried to convince the magistrate of the change the Free Jaffa had gone through since they won their freedom. The magistrate countered with the brutal rule of the system lords and the two rebellions they had started since the fall of the system lords. Arguments were sent back and forth and eventually Eisman managed to get the Jaffa soldiers released and the bodies of the dead returned to the FJN as a gesture of good faith. With that and the promise to return the next morning, Eisman and the magistrate parted way. Eisman and his men escorted the Jaffa to the stargate from where they went back to Atlantis.

The next day they returned, progress was slow and by the end of the day they hadn't moved up much more. Eisman did however hear that the emperor himself was on his way to the city, to take charge of the negotiations himself. Eisman managed to secure safe passage for a diplomatic team from Atlantis to take over the negotiations.

Several days later the emperor arrived and so did the diplomatic team. They both drove a hard bargain and many concessions were made by the Tau'ri diplomats, despite the fact that the bill would be forwarded to the Free Jaffa. Eventually the emperor agreed to an evacuation of all Jaffa, over the duration of a year in return for numerous advances, mostly in agriculture, medicine, construction, mining, though not in military means, that would violate several treaties. Within two weeks the first engineer battalions would arrive to start schooling them in the new techniques and helping them set up things such as improved plumbing and new mining equipment. A lot of the transport would be done by the Free Jaffa, though they would never actively help them.

It seemed that after all which had happened this particular chapter was closed, with satisfying results on all sides.

**War cabinet meeting**

**Situation room, White house**

**Washington DC, Earth**

**May 22**

"Ladies and Gentlemen, I'm sorry to have called you earlier than expected, I know that the next meeting wasn't supposed to take place for another week, but Director Foley of the TFCIA claims to have credible information about imminent Dominion activity." Ryan said as he opened the meeting. "Director Foley, if you will."

"Yes, thank you Mister President." Foley said as he stood up and walked towards a presentation screen. "As you can seen from these scans made by the Tok'ra a Dominion scout force is moving towards the Cau system. This was eight hours ago. Three hours ago they arrived and attempted to move through the natural barriers in place. As expected the ships sustained heavy damage before they turned around and called for reinforcements. Ten minutes later a carrier group departed a nearby staging ground. We think that the Dominion are going to use fighters or unmanned drones to scout the barriers and find a way through."

"Will they find that way through?" Ryan asked.

"If they keep it up long enough they will most certainly find a way." Foley said.

"And what are the defenses there?"

"Sir." O'Neill said as he stood up, this was more his part. "We have eight MBDP's at the entrance and about a dozen more in the two systems. Considering the size of the entrance it should be more than enough, only destroyers and light cruisers will fit through and those are no match for our platforms."

"So what's the rush here? None of our bases are under immediate threat and I don't see any downside in the Dominion wasting a bunch of ships looking for a needle in a haystack."

"As long as Dominion ships are in that sector our wolfpacks need to exit hyperspace further away to evade detection and then go in cloaked, it will increase the travel time with several days and once the Dominion ships enter that tunnel to the Cau system we cannot get our ships in or out." O'Neill said.

"What are our options?" Ryan asked.

"Nothing really, all we can do is wait and see."

"Okay, so now that we're here, what else is going on in the galaxies?"

"Well, ever since the conclusion of the deal with the people of P33-222 we've been sending in engineering battalions. The second battalion has just arrived and the Free Jaffa have delivered their needed tools. We've also transferred two education companies to teach them new techniques and the likes." The secretary of state said.

"That's great; thank god the Jaffa didn't screw it all up but instead came to us to solve this." Robby Jackson, the chairman said.

"Amen to that." Ryan said.

"Sir, the medical research division has passed me a request to test body reconstruction nanites." O'Neill said.

"Okay? I didn't know the space forces did medical research these days." Ryan said.

"We don't, usually. But somehow General Sheppard got his hands on a report about the project and suggested we go one step further and use it to create a body to house Doctor Elizabeth Weir's conscious. As you know she's been afloat in a replicator body in the middle of space since somewhere in 2009."

"Not considering the security breach going on here." Ryan said before he was interrupted.

O'Neill coughed once: _"McKay."_ And coughed again.

"What are the dangers here?" Ryan asked, ignoring O'Neill.

"Well, we all know how dangerous the replicators are." The SecDef said.

"True and I'll be the last person in the known galaxies to advocate the return of those little buggers." O'Neill said. "But we have been using nanite med packs in the field, and military hospitals have been using nanites in all kinds of procedures."

"And don't forget that we've been using nanites to gather resources and they're even involved in building our own warships." Admiral Jackson added.

"But this is a full body, made by nanites, with nanites remaining in the body." The SecDef said.

"No, the nanites will be removed after completion. The most dangerous part would be extracting the conscious from the old body without reactivating the replicator body and transmitting it into the new body." O'Neill corrected the SecDef.

"Okay, I'm leaning to allowing this, does anyone have anything else to bring in and try to change my mind?" Ryan asked.

"Replicators, especially as advanced as what we are talking about have always been dangerous and always will be dangerous, no matter what we'll do to make it safer for us." O'Neill said.

"General, are you trying to change my mind after advocating giving this a try?" Ryan asked.

"Just giving you all the info about it. My wife would kill me if I wouldn't."

"Does she know about this particular part?"

"Not specifically, but I did ask her what the risks were and what advances we've made since we destroyed the last replicators."

"What does she think?"

"It's something worth risking. If this test is successful, we might be able to transfer consciousnesses from people whose body is failing into new bodies. Though we do need to consider what happened to the Asgard."

"I understand." Ryan said. He thought about it for a moment. "Okay General, take any possible precaution and give it a try." Ryan said.

**TFS Explorer**

**Aquarius Dwarf Galaxy**

**May 30**

The TFS Explorer was one of the dozen or so exploration ships. It was a modified BC-304, one of the hanger bays was transformed into a living area, a science lab and several other more useful things that would be necessary on a mission of exploration. Because of the loss of the hanger bay the ship carried no 302's, but instead carried four jumpers with an ample supply of drones. The ship was also a bit larger, and the open space that was normally present on a 304 between the main body and the top deck was filled up. The Explorer had been in this galaxy for quite a while. The galaxy itself was located close to the Pegasus galaxy, but showed no signs of any kind of life ever being present, not even Wraith life. So far the Explorer had scouted about a quarter of the dwarf galaxy. This didn't mean it had visited every planet in that one quarter, but they had searched the most likely planets for live to develop and they had searched for signs of space travel. After all, the Tau'ri federation didn't need prehistorically allies, but space faring advanced allies.

Today they were searching a system that showed four planets within the goldilocks zone, the habitable zone. Within this galaxy habitable planets were hard to find. If this system did indeed contain four habitable planets it would be a prime candidate for any future colonization.

"Commander, no apparent signs of habituation found. No ships in the immediate vicinity found, the scopes are clear."

"Very well. Put us in an orbit over the nearest habitable planet. Start a detailed scan of subspace and hyperspace and look for any traces of space travel." The Commander said.

Within a few minutes early results were back. "Sir, we've detected a faint trace of hyperspace radiation, it seems recent."

"Anything else?"

"Yeah, right where the hyperspace radiation ends a strange type of radiation starts to form a trail."

"Can you map out all the particles, date them and determine a possible course and speed?"

"Yes sir." The bridge officer worked on her console and a map covered the main screen and it featured the planet they were orbiting and a dotted line showed the past positions and an arrow showed the current heading, and speed.

"Is it just me or is it about to come from behind the planet?"

"Yes sir, about thirty seconds or so. They will see us once they do."

"Why aren't our sensors detecting them already?"

"They might be cloaked."

"Let's do the same. Activate our cloaking system."

"Activating." Seconds later the ship cloaked itself.

"Holy shit, unknown contact straight ahead, 180.000 miles out and closing fast!"

"Activate defensive systems and switch to shields." The commander ordered.

"The other ship is coming back into our visible spectrum." A lieutenant reported.

It was immediately put on screen.

"Is that Wraith?" the bridge officer asked.

"Not anything I've ever seen before, but it does look like Wraith tech." the Commander said. "Arm weapons, but make sure the targeting systems remain in their current stance."

"Yes sir." The tactical officer said. "Shields are at full, rail guns and missiles are online, energy weapons powering, 70, 80, 90, 100 percent, fully loaded, armed and ready."

"Sir, sir I believe its slowing down. Yes, it is slowing down sir, at about 20.000 miles straight ahead." A rather nervous lieutenant reported.

"We've got an incoming video feed, the compression is a bit odd, but I think we can make it work."

"Put it on screen. Beware of any viruses trying to sneak in or anything."

"Already on it sir, the mainframe is up and running."

"Okay, put it on."

The screen changed into the face of a man. He looked odd, a mixture between human and Wraith.

"What is that? A Wraith with human features?" someone asked.

"More like a human with Wraith features." Another commented.

"Silent, all of you, we will find out what's the reason behind that later." The Commander said. He turned towards the screen and a camera focused on him. "This is Commander Archibald Forrest of the Tau'ri Federation Ship Explorer; I inquire to your identity and intentions."

"_Ha! You inquire to my identity and intentions? What gives you the right to make such claims while you have powered your weapons, invaded our territory and are two buttons shy of opening fire on my ship?" The other commander replied. "But nevertheless, such transgressions can be overlooked. My name is Dirius, commander of the Ghost vessel Dreadnought. For a while now we've been tracking your ship as you drew closer to our territory. Our intentions, as you put it, are to maintain the neutrality of our territory, to seek out any threats to our society and thwart them. We shall not seek aggression and conflict, though we shall be prepared to respond in kind to anything you will throw at us. Does that satisfy your questions?" Dirius asked._

"Almost. Considering your appearance, I have one more question. What is your relation to the Wraith." Forrest asked.

"_We were brothers of the Wraith, hence our appearance, though we don't share their need to feed. I assume you have met the Wraith and witnessed their destructiveness, it is why we fled them, and they tried to eliminate us."_ Dirius said. _"This is a topic which will need further explaining, given that one is possible."_

"If that is the case, please forgive me for the aggressiveness with which we approached you. We have fought a long, costly and deadly war against the wraith and one of their allies, the appearance of your ship and yourself made us wary and cautiously." Forrest apologized. "As the name of this ship suggests we are explorers, peaceful explorers. The matter of the fact is that we, along with a dozen other ships have been sent out to neighboring galaxies for exploration and to find new powerful allies, and as it is, a power, many times stronger and larger than the Wraith is invading our home galaxy. All our indications are that they will stop at nothing and have been conquering galaxies for many millions of years."

"_Then why have you come here, all you do is lead this enemy here. You have put this entire galaxy in danger."_ Dirius said in terror as the reality started to dawn.

"No, we have not. We are among the first powers that are unified into a galactic alliance geared towards creating one political and military unity for our galaxy, we have had quite an advance warning of their coming and we have prepared. Nevertheless, losses are already high and will keep climbing tremendously as the more populated planets are just coming under attack. Even as it is, one of our closest ally's home system is about to come under siege and we've been evacuating nearly fifteen billion civilians while another six to nine billion are gathered on several planets that will be heavily defended."

"_And what would you want from us?" _Dirius asked.

"Whatever you have to offer to us. We could use any kind of help, from humanitarian aid to high tech military support."

"_I suggest we meet in person." _

"I agree, do you want to come over to my ship or do you want me to come over to yours?"

"_I must admit I am quite intrigued by the design of your ship, I am willing to come over to your ship, commander."_

"Very well, I will prepare a greeting party. Will you be coming over by personal transport?"

"_Yes, I presume I can land in your single hanger bay?"_

"Yes, it will be ready to receive your transport."

"_Thank you, Dirius out."_

The screen went static and was quickly changed to a view of the other vessel.

"Okay, let's roll out the red carpet." Forrest joked.

"Sir, we don't have a red carpet."

"I know, I was joking. Have a marine detachment prepare for an honor guard in the hanger bay."

About fifteen minutes later the commander and a marine honor guard stood at the ready as a transport set down inside the hanger bay. Commander Forrest searched for a hatch and thought he found one. He stood in front of it, waiting for I to open but was surprised when suddenly a rear hatch opened. He quickly made his way over there. Commander Dirius had exited his craft without any additional security or visible defenses. Forrest took a good long look at the Commander. He certainly reminded him of the Wraith, the strange nostrils, the face tattoos, the same type of skin, though lighter and also an impressive length of over six feet.

"Commander Dirius I presume?" Forrest said as he held out his hand, hoping he wouldn't be fed upon.

"You presume right. Commander Forrest?" Dirius asked as he took the hand, no feeding action going on fortunately.

"That's me. Welcome aboard the TFS Explorer, a modified 304 class battle cruiser." Forrest said as they shook hands while someone was using a small, flying drone to record the entire event.

Darius quickly noticed the drone and looked at it inquisitive. "May I ask what the purpose of this drone is? Is it a defensive weapon?"

"No, most certainly not, it's only 'weapon' is a camera to record this first contact as we like to call it, for others to watch."

"Quite some expectations you must have to record your first meeting with my race."

"Well, you never know what might happen on a first meeting. The least it will do is act as a teaching guide for future diplomats and commanders to prepare them for a first contact situation." Forrest said. "Shall we go to a more appropriate location to continue our talks?"

"Yes, that would be perfect."

Both of them, as well as a small security team made their way over to the commander's ward room. They entered and Dirius got his first real look at Tau'ri design. A large mahogany table dominated the room and a dozen comfortable chairs stood around it. The window showed the beautiful sight of one of the planets and a sofa stood in front of the window. On one of the walls several pieces of art showed ancient and more modern sea going vessels, some of which had been called Explorer as well. Another wall had a couple of large screens on it, one displaying overall information of the Explorer, the other giving a clear picture of the Ghost ship. The old purely functional interior had been replaced by a more luxurious design, these ships were supposed to be away from home for several years. The table had some cans of water and a few glasses and also some fruits from Earth, it caught Dirius' attention.

Dirius looked at the bowl of fruit inquisitive until he turned to Forrest. "May I?"

"Please go ahead." Forrest said. Dirius looked at all the different sorts of fruit before choosing one. "These are all from Earth, as fresh as can be when you're millions of light years from home. In fact we had these brought in about a week ago through the stargate."

"You have a stargate aboard your ship? We didn't detect it at all." Dirius said.

"Well, we have some additional shielding installed to it; we don't want anyone to get easy access to it."

"Ah, that solves some super weapon theories my people have about that section."

"Well, the stargate is a super weapon in its own right, wouldn't you agree?"

"True, I remember the war against the Ancients; we regularly used their own gates against themselves."

"Yeah, use your enemy's strength against him. We did that too to eliminate the Wraith."

"And which might that have been for the Wraith?"

"Their allies. We exterminated their allies whom were giving them the means to fight us and once they were out of the equation we simply had to mop them up."

"And what do you exactly mean by 'exterminated'?" Dirius asked. "Do you mean that you destroyed their military and political infrastructure? Destroyed their power to make war?"

"No, I mean complete and utter destruction, it wasn't our greatest moment, and we completely wasted their home world. Fact is, we ended that war and could start to focus on the Dominion. It also sent out a message to all other powers in the known galaxy that we weren't going to let other races kill other races without holding them to account for their actions. The Wraith together with their allies killed over a billion humans during the siege of Earth."

"Well, I honestly don't know what to say about that." Dirius said after a moment. "Let's start with what we are here for."

**War cabinet meeting**

**Situation room, White house**

**Washington DC, Earth**

**June 14**

"Ladies and Gentlemen, it appears that we have a small crisis developing on P22-333. Audrey, would you please fill us in." Ryan said.

Audrey Keller, the secretary of state, pressed a few buttons and several digital reports came to the screens around them. "Yesterday at about 9.50 PM four members of the 22nd educational company were reported missing. They had been in town to help out with a problem in the educational system. At 9 PM they called in and reported that they were leaving town and were on their way back. The trip from this town to their camp usually takes about fifteen minutes. When they were fifteen minutes late they were called on the radio but no answer was given. A search party was organized and they quickly found their radio and other equipment along the side of the road. To those first on site it seemed as if they were taken by surprise and at least one was injured due to the finding of blood. At this point a call was made to the central command post and a UAV was launched to find the missing members. The immediate area was heavily forested and hampered the search. When they tried to locate them via their locater beacons they could not be found. It is possible that they were taken into several nearby caves but this is yet unconfirmed."

"I assume that our troops went to search the caves?" Ryan said.

"Eh, yes sir and that is when it all turned pear shaped." General Maynard (Army) cut in.

"A local force came to the camp of the educational unit under the pretense of helping out. What they were there for however was to take them all into custody. They managed to get a call out to the other units, which since then have all fortified their positions awaiting further instructions."

"So if I get this correctly, they first asked our help, then somehow four of our people got abducted and now they are holding an entire educational company hostage while our other units are under siege." Ryan said.

"Yes sir."

"Any casualties?"

"Our last dial in reported over a dozen death on our side. Our deaths might be higher as the radio call we got from the 22nd did indicate they were taking casualties."

"Did we try talking to them?"

"The local commander tried that but nearly got a spear up his ass sir." Maynard said.

"What have we got in the area?"

"A 306 exited hyperspace just a few minutes ago." O'Neill said. As on cue his telephone rang. He picked up the phone and listened to the person on the other side. "Sir, I have the commander of the ship on the line, do you want me to patch him through?"

Ryan just nodded.

"Colonel Hadrians of the Louisville, you're on speaker with the president and the war cabinet."

"Colonel." Ryan started. "What can you tell us about the situation?"

"_Sir, we've just received several critical wounded from ground based units as well as the bodies of the dead. Our preliminary sensor sweep shows that the hostages have been taken to some kind of prison complex near a theatre, we are counting 108 life signs which mean that twelve are missing. The four that had been missing from the start can still not be located but the other eight seem to be buried in a improvised grave near their camp."_ There was a little pause while the Colonel listened to someone else on board the ship. _"Sir, it appears that the other four are located deep underground in some kind of building. We cannot be sure if they are alive but there are a lot of life signs around that cannot be identified."_

"Anyone has an idea why they are there?" Ryan asked.

"Perhaps it's a trial?" someone suggested.

"Or a victory party or something." Someone else suggested.

"Colonel, can you beam them out?"

"_Negative, they are too far underground and our sensors can't get an accurate enough fix with all the other people around."_ Hadrians said. _"Sir, wait a minute. Sir four life signs just disappeared. It, it might be our people, their positions roughly match."_

"You're saying four people just died?"

"_It seems to be so."_

"An execution."

"Alright." Ryan said. "I want options."

"Give diplomacy another shot." The Secretary of state said.

"We tried and failed. We've already lost a dozen people and probably just another four more. We need to act now before more people are hurt." O'Neill said.

"What can we do?" Ryan asked.

"We've got the biggest and strongest military in this galaxy; we can do anything we want to do." The SecDef said.

"Let me rephrase. What can we do that wouldn't make us the bully in this story?"

"We could beam our own troops out. Send in Special Forces to extract the prisoners, keep the weapons down to stun only. We could speed up the evacuation of the Jaffa by having them rally on the outskirts of the villages and beam them out from there. Those that live in free areas could be protected by orbital bombardments against forces attempting to cross a certain line; we could call it the Rubicon, to make it easier for them. In the end we need to evacuate the entire planet without killing all too many of their citizens and not lose too many Jaffa in the process." O'Neill said.

"Can you make a plan for that?" Ryan asked.

"Give me 24 hours and it'll be on your desk." O'Neill said.

"Alright, I'd say go, any of you have something to say about it?"

They all collectively shook their heads.

**Gate room, Atlantis**

**August 14, 2024**

The president and an entourage of him waited in front of the stargate. It wasn't every day the president received guests through the stargate, it was quite rare actually. But today was different; his guest was unable to come by ship, at least for now. His guest was a princess called Amarah and she was here to sign a trade alliance between the Tau'ri Federation and her people, known as the Ghost. Commander Forrest had put together quite a comprehensive report on the Ghost. They were an offshoot of the Wraith and basically were the scientists in the war. After the Ancients fled the Wraith turned on their gifted brothers and tried to exterminate them. It left them with only one option; take their ships to another galaxy, knowing that no common Wraith vessel could follow them.

The Ghost developed in peace which in turn pacified their population. Though their ships were powerful, they were not numerous. Their need to feed was long ago discarded as a weakness. Instead they used regular food at only the cost of slower regeneration. Their technology bordered on that of the ancients and only the combination of Asgard tech and human ingenuity coupled with the Ancient tech gave the Tau'ri the upper hand technology wise.

Nevertheless the Ghost had agreed to send their crown princess, the future queen to Earth to sign the treaty. Meanwhile a jumpgate was prepared so that travel from the Aquarius galaxy would become much easier and a small escort fleet for the princess could be brought in. it was planned that after the treaty was signed the princess would travel around the galaxy to initiate diplomatic relations. Most of the details had already been ironed out during the numerous meetings commander Forrest had with Ghost officials.

"_Incoming wormhole." _A tech said as the stargate started dialing. _"Chevron one engaged."_

A major in his dress uniform rushed his way up to the president. "Major Barclay reporting as ordered sir."

"Finally Major, I was starting to wonder where you were. You are supposed to give the princes her tour of the base first thing."

"Yes sir, sorry sir. General O'Neill wanted me to relay a message to you about operation 'Legion Gemina'." Barclay said.

"What is it?"

"It appears that a unit has crossed the line we established as Rubicon against the wishes of a majority in their senate. It appears that just as in the tails of Julius Caesar's crossing of the Rubicon, a Civil war has broken out."

"Are any Tau'ri or Jaffa lives at stake?"

"No sir, we had already evacuated all of our own people and all Jaffa within the republic had already been evacuated. So far the Rubicon is holding and the Free Jaffa are still evacuating the Jaffa there."

"Very well major, there's nothing we can do about that, it's their own fault. Let's focus on the task at hand." The president said as the seventh chevron locked.

"_Chevron eight is locked and engaged." _ The typically large kawoosh formed and receded. _"TFS Explorer IDC has been received and verified, shield is lowered."_

An honor guard quickly assembled for the arrival of the princess. First through were a couple of Ghost soldiers. They were large enough to dwarf most Tau'ri and had their side arms holstered. They quickly looked around and stepped aside to allow the princess through. She surprised most, instead of the height of her escorts she was small, in comparison, and also looked a lot younger and more human. The honor guards saluted and the princes took notice of them and looked them up and down. She walked forwards to where Ryan and his entourage were waiting.

"Princes Amarah, it is a pleasure to welcome you to Atlantis, city of the Ancients." Ryan said as he shook her hand.

The prices looked around in marvel of the design and grandeur of the gate room. "It is my pleasure to finally set foot in this city and to meet you Mister President." As she looked around her eye fell on Major Barclay who stood a few feet behind the president.

It only took the president a moment to notice that the princes' gaze was focused on the Major. "This is Major Barclay; he is the commander of the TFMC's second defense battalion stationed on Atlantis. In a few moments he will give you a tour of the city after which you can retire to an apartment we've set up for you. The signing will be tomorrow morning."

"Thank you Mister President, I am looking forward to it." The princes said. She walked over to the major." I'll take that tour now please."

Major Barclay looked towards the president who gave him a nod. "Yes your majesty. If you'll please follow me."

The princess followed the major as they made their way to the sickbay in the control tower.

"This is the central tower's sickbay, once known as now General Sheppard's private infirmary. The story goes that every week or so then Major and Colonel Sheppard got injured to some degree on a mission or while working out in the gym. He spent so much time here that he barely had anything in his quarters that was of much value to him."

"This General Sheppard sounds like a reckless man."

"Well, I wouldn't say he's reckless per se. he did a lot of things, he was part of the main team fighting the Wraith and was heavily involved in training new members of the expedition in hand to hand combat which was to be expected when ambushed by the Wraith, he saved a lot of lives that way."

"And is it still used as an infirmary, there aren't any people around?"

"It is an auxiliary infirmary these days; we don't have any teams going through the stargate on a daily base. The medical facilities of the base are now located on the southern pier where we have a real hospital, equipped with the most advanced medical technology in the galaxy.

Eventually Princess Amarah and Major Barclay moved on. They visited a lot of impressive sights, including the gym where they got a firsthand look at how Sheppard got hurt so much in the past; Ronon was training some of his commando's. The princess got an impressive sight of the shipyards and other facilities just outside the main city and visited the 305 wharf where a number of 305's were in different stages of construction.

"So, Major Barclay, tell me about you." Amarah asked while they were watching construction on one of the 305's.

"What would you like to know?"

"Well, anything really, seeing all those medals and ribbons on your chest I'd say you are quite an experienced soldier."

"True, I've been in quite some conflicts. When I was seventeen years I had my parents sign a permission slip so that I could join the US Marine Corps, the predecessor of the Tau'ri Federation Marine Corps. I first did a tour as a sergeant in Iraq where the US was fighting a counter insurgency war. After a few years I was recommended to officer candidate school. In my last year of OCS, I was on leave with my sister in New York City when the Wraith laid Earth under siege. During the siege I was part of a USMC battalion defending the Manhattan area, by the end I received a field promotion to the rank of first lieutenant. After the Wraith fleet was destroyed I was part of a command that would storm an unknown island known as lingshan to free Wraith prisoners there. The assault was a massive disaster; we were ambushed from the start and had massive casualties. Nevertheless I pushed my troops forwards and took out three vital Wraith positions. I was later rewarded the Medal of Honor, the highest military decoration possible, for my actions there. At the end of the Wraith's siege large pieces of debris struck the planet, killing my parents in upstate New York. Since my promotion I've been deployed several times, twice to the Pegasus galaxy to fight the Wraith and I've been part of eight invasions in the Aschen campaigns. In the end I had collected all these medals and my golden oak leaves."

"Golden Oak leaves?"

"Yes, it's the insignia for a Major in the Marine Corps, these things on my shoulder, they are modeled after the leaves of an Oak tree."

"So how about you?"

"Well, contrary to what most Tau'ri I've spoke to seem to think I wasn't born a royalty. In my society you are appointed as princes. Its more or less a selection of who would be the best queen. Every queen only serves for a hundred years at most. Due to our long lifespan it means that a queen only serves a small part of her life as queen. About twenty five years before a ruling queen is bound to step down a procedure begins where a new queen is selected. It takes about five years to select a new queen and the remaining 20 or so years the princes undergoes training and is prepared for her eventual duties."

"That sounds more like your professional life; I meant your personal life."

"There honestly isn't much history to me from before I became princes. I was selected at the age of fourteen, I'm 30 years now, and I'll be the queen of the Ghost in five years, no matter what. Both my parents were scientists. I have two sisters and a brother; two are in the military while the third owns a private business."

"Let's move on, there are many more feats you should see."

She of course visited the holoroom where she was introduced to the interactive hologram representing Atlantis' training program created by the ancients.

After the tour Barclay showed her to the mess hall where he had the cook set up an area for a more private dinner where the best of Tau'ri cuisine was displayed. After the diner Barclay showed the princes to her chambers in the diplomatic section of the city.

**The next morning**

**0830**

"_Major Barclay? Major Barclay this is Sergeant Yeng in the control room, please come in."_ the voice of one Sergeant Yeng came in over the radio.

Major Barclay, not really amused on being interrupted while he was in bed with the princess, doing what people do in bed when in the presence of a rather beautiful lady.

As he reached for his radio he replied.

"This is Major Barclay, what do you need Sergeant?"

"_Sir, General Landry requested your presence at the pre signing briefing. He also wishes to know the position of the princess; according to her guards she left her chambers last night."_

"Please inform the General that I will be in his office in half an hour and that I will make sure that the princess is in her quarters by that time."

"_Very well sir."_

"That was close." Barclay said.

"You think she knows?"

"No, even if she did she probably wouldn't tell."

**September 1, 2024**

**Colonial Presidential command bunker**

**Caprica city, Colony of Caprica, seat of the Colonial Government**

The presidential bunker was located deep underground directly under the government complex. The main attraction was the Gods room, a place from where the President could rule the twelve colonies. Nowadays, there were only four, Caprica, Picon, Tauron and Gemenon. The other eight had been evacuated and less than a week ago Dominion battle groups invaded them. Instead of completely wasting the planets they cleared them out and put up a garrison force.

While they were doing this they had cautiously probed the Helios Alpha system, the last free Colonial system. The defenses around Helios Alpha had been placed in such a way that it created a bottleneck. If you'd look at the system as if the planets and the sun were floating in water, the 'underwater', the bottom was blockade by large minefields covered by long range weaponry. The asteroid belt was already close to impassable and it served as a perfect place to put most of the MBDP's because from there, they could cover the top or 'air' area. This also meant that most of the fleet was there to tie down the attacking forces. Once again the use of mines allowed for the creation of a bottleneck making the job much easier for the ships and limiting the amount of ships to field against the alliance fleet. Together with the combined Tau'ri-Colonial fleet, the Tau'ri operated Ancient Defenses on Caprica, the elaborate defenses of the Picon fleet HQ, the mine fields and the massive numbers of MBDP's, the system was the most fortified in the known galaxies, safe from the Sol system.

The Gods room was packed, beside the president and other senior cabinet members and the Colonial Joint Chiefs, dozens of Admirals and Generals were present. Most were colonial, but five Generals were part of the Tau'ri's 21st Army Group while seven Generals made up the commanding force of the Tau'ri fleet present. The more important one was, the closer one was to the holographic tables in the center of the room. From several other planets people attended by holographic avatar.

The holographic tables showed the situation as it was, a large fleet of blue, allied ships clustered together near the Picon fleet HQ anchorage and an even more massive red colored war fleet assembling between the Helios Alpha system, and the Helios Beta system.

"Ladies and Gentlemen, Admirals and Generals, welcome. The invasion of the remnants of the twelve colonies is only hours away. The coming days, weeks, perhaps even years the future of the twelve colonies as we know it will be determined. We've got the largest ground army, coupled with the best equipment and Tau'ri help it will keep control of the planets. We've got massive shields to defend the cities most of our citizen are housed in, we've got major defensive lines that sometimes stretch for hundreds of miles, and not just one deep, but ten, sometimes even twelve lines deep. We've got so much weapons and supplies stored so that we could fight on for a hundred years and arm every able person in the twelve colonies and still have weapons and ammunition left."

"Admiral Negala, could you please run us through the plan one last time?" Roslin asked.

"Yes Madam President." Negala said as he stood up. "If everyone could please find a place from where he/she could see the tables I'll start."

People shuffled around a bit to get a better view.

"Alright, as we all probably know by now we've been ruining the Dominion scout parties into the system for the last few days. They have become more and more aggressive, both in size and speed. Now, within two hours we expect these ships to advance as a forced recon." Negala said as a group of ships was highlighted. "These will probably be the last scout group and we will do our best to make sure they will not send any kind of information back to the Dominion fleet."

Negala let it sank in a bit for the rest. "Once that's done we've got about an hour at most before the Dominion main attack starts. They will most likely send in two or three battle groups at a time trying to grind us down."

The table changed into an overview of the entire fleet in orbit. The battlestars, battleships and all other ships were ordered by group and type. In particular the five Aurora's were interesting. "The Tau'ri operated Aurora warships as well as the Caprica based Drone chair will not commence firing until the Dominion either threaten to break through our lines, surprise us though as so far unthought-of maneuver or send in one of their mother ships."

"Now, as I said, the Dominion will try to grind us down. So don't be surprised if they will keep sending ships for over two weeks, one wave every twenty minutes or so. It will be exhausting on you and your crew and you might even have to send your crew to battle stations at reduced. The current record is the Dominion siege of the once home world of the Ori; Celestis, which lasted for nine weeks. That means seven battle groups every thirty minutes for nine weeks. The casualties were enormous and a lot of the Dominion most experienced forces were decimated."

"At first we might be able to take out any damaged ships to repair them and then later return them to the line in order to take other damaged ships out and continue this. But eventually we will suffer too many losses and we will simply not be able to sustain this practice and we will need every ship on the line."

"Once Dominion landing craft have breached the perimeter and start to land forces on the surface the fleet will provide as much as possible firepower. As you all know all four planets have been heavily fortified, for instance Caprica, the most well known fortresses are located on the perimeter of Caprica city and Delhi. Though both cities lie over 200 kilometers away from each other, but nevertheless together they have a total of nine defensive lines while both cities have twelve individual defensive lines for their defense. Because of the city shield technology provided by the Tau'ri we are able to protect our most important cities from orbital bombardment."

Before Negala could continue a loud alarm started blaring. "Well, it seems that the Dominion once again won't play on our timeline. Let's all get to our assigned stations and I don't think we'll be seeing each other for a while. Dismissed."

Quickly most people were beamed away and only the civilian personnel as well as the joint chiefs remained, basically everyone who didn't have a field combat command.

In space, ships got in formation, fighters were launched and formed up with their squadrons and weapons and shields were brought up to full power.

Nearly an entire Dominion battle group approached the perimeter. As usual they spread out further than they should have and as soon as the flanks entered the minefields they were eliminated.

In response to the alliance launched fighters the Dominion launched theirs. They quickly came under sporadic attack by long range railgun fire from Picon Fleet HQ, the only station to have railguns with such a range. A dozen or so fighters were taken out.

As the Dominion force crawled closer more and more of their ships came under intense fire from the various defenses. Eventually they came under attack from the fleet itself. A short firefight finished off what remained of the Dominion fleet against no losses on the Alliance side.

Once the fleet was destroyed the alliance fleet retrieved its fighters and bombers and resupplied its forces. Already the Dominion were preparing to send in their main assault. Hundreds, if not thousands of ships formed up, and even now more and more Dominion ships were arriving, most notably the Dominion transport and ammunition ships.

The battle for the Colonies was on.

**I hope you enjoyed it, so if you did, leave a review**


	12. Chapter 12

**thanks to Rudy Pena and just a crazy man for the beta, enjoy and R&R  
**

**A gateroom**

**September 4 2024**

The old stargate opened up and spewed out dozens of heavily armed soldiers.

The commanding officer, a Colonel started issuing orders. "First Squad take the left corridor, second squad take the right corridor. Third squad, go up those stairs and check out the top floors. Fourth squad with me, let's go find somewhere we can plug those ZPM's in."

"Command, this is Telford, we have arrived but have found no sign of the crew yet, we'll investigate and install the ZPM's now. We'll dial back in about thirty minutes."

Soon after the gate shut down. All squads fanned out to secure the place.

Telford and his team made their way forwards finding nothing but emptiness. Eventually they reached the control room and they were surprised to say the least.

"Eli." Telford said.

"Telford? How did you get aboard?"

"Stargate. What's happening?"

"Destiny is about to enter a star to recharge, the trip across the void took a bit longer than expected, I guess we drifted the last part. The system woke me up to pilot the ship into the sun on a safe course before the main navigational systems can be reactivated." Eli said in a rush while programming the course for Destiny. "What the hell happened to you guys, what took you so long? What date is it anyways?"

"September 4, 2024, we tried to dial in dozens of time but couldn't get a lock."

"Oh, I guess Destiny concluded it would drain too much power." Eli said after thinking about it.

"Which was exactly our conclusion as well, so we brought something to help with that."

"Such as?"

"ZPM's, three of them and we've got a couple more back home, just in case."

"Wait, you dialed Destiny from Earth?"

"No, the Kelownans finally let us use their gate since it's tied into all that naquadah and naquadriah they got." Sensing that Eli had some more questions he just skipped ahead. "Earth, in fact the entire galaxy is in dire straits, we're under attack by a powerful enemy and we could use any advantage we can get. I'll tell you about it later but first I need your help to get these three ZPM's started so we can wake the rest of the crew; I need to have a talk with the Colonel."

"You're gonna have to wait till we've finished refueling, it's not like I can leave this station right now and I doubt you brought the geniuses with you to install them yourself." Eli said as some sweat trickled down his forehead.

"Sure, do your thing Wallace."

As they neared the star the ship began to heat up, not something deadly, but sure as hell uncomfortable.

Once Destiny entered the star other systems came back online as power was restored and reserves were built up.

"Okay Eli, how about we install the ZPM's and wake the crew now?"

"First I want to wake Rush, he'll help you install the ZPM's while I pull the rest out of stasis. Besides I have never ever seen a ZPM, Rush has."

So it came to be that twenty minutes later, Rush was busy installing the second ZPM, Eli and a couple of soldiers were waking the crew and Telford just talked to the people back home who had dialed in after the delay.

"David." Telford heard someone say behind him after the gate went out.

"Everett." Telford replied. "Good to see you in person again."

"You too." Young said. "Eli said you wanted to see me. What's up?"

"You've been away for a while."

"I heard, Eli told me its 2024, I personally was expecting it to be 2014, but I guess Destiny had some engine trouble again."

"We figured that. But we're here to stay and to fix Destiny. We've got a lot to do. But first things first." Telford said as he reached for one of his pockets. He pulled something out but due to the low lighting Young couldn't see what it was. "The president seas Destiny as the third main theatre of war, and we can't have a Colonel commanding an entire theatre, therefore, you've been promoted. Congratulations General, it might just be a single star but it's not like we're gonna be moving divisions out here." Telford said as he showed Young the stars before he put them on his shoulders. "Now, I think you need to assemble your senior crew."

**Destiny Conference Room**

Newly promoted General Young, Colonel Telford, Lieutenants Scott and Johansen, Sergeant Greer, Doctor Rush, Eli, Wray and Chloe were gathered in the make shift conference room aboard Destiny. They were among the first to be awakened and once Brody and James were woken up they were left to awake the rest while the others went to receive a briefing from Telford and Young.

"Okay people, it now is September 4 2024, about 6:26 PM." Young started.

"FYI we all need to reset our watches, they were put in stasis as well." Eli commented before shutting up after he got several glares from Young and Telford.

"Yes Eli, thank you." Young said.

"If none of you would mind I'd like to inform you about the current state of affairs and your new mission." Telford said.

"Sure thing, go ahead." Wray said.

"Okay, this is just a general overview of the last ten years." Telford warned. "After you left, Earth was attacked again by the Wraith, this time massive damage was done. Fortunately earlier we made contact with a civilization known as the Twelve Colonies of Kobol. Though technologically inferior they had possession of a FTL drive, not unlike that of Destiny. The Wraith sent a dozen super hives, thanks to this technology we were able to take out the super hives and free Earth. Ever since Earth has been dealing with the Wraith and the Aschen, both have been taken out since. We have also encountered the much more powerful Dominion. We are now in a state of war with the Dominion, together with the Milky Way alliance we are fighting an empire that stretches for dozens, if not hundreds of galaxies." Telford said shocking the people.

"Now, we're fighting them, as we speak the Dominion are laying siege to the Colonies and we have a large fleet fighting there, but in the long run it won't be enough. And that's where you come in. In the previous galaxy you discovered this enemy, these drones. What we are thinking about is that if we introduce these drones behind the Dominion lines, say one or two galactic clusters behind their lines, with enough safeguards against them fighting us, they might be able to disrupt Dominion supply lines enough for us to drive the Dominion out of the galaxy."

"Eh, one problem with that, we're extremely far away from Earth and while the Drone fighters might fit through the stargate, their mother ships wont." Eli commented.

"Not to mention that this ship can't be turned around. It's set in its course and we can only make so much adjusting before Destiny shuts us out." Rush said.

"We've thought about that as well. We'll be sending in equipment to pinpoint the exact location of Destiny, and once that's done we'll use what we call a jump gate to send a squadron of Battle cruisers and other vessels to Destiny for your support. Their job is to find and capture one of these Drone Mother Ships intact and send it to a predetermined place in Dominion controlled space."

"This all sounds very farfetched to me, how much progress did Earth made since we left?" Chloe asked.

"In about an hour a second group is to arrive, they will bring a lot of supplies and manpower, we are here to stay. They will also bring several laptops with files on the advancements we've made and you can study those for more information." Telford said. "In the meanwhile I'd like Rush and Eli to prepare Destiny's batteries for upgrade, we know that the batteries are corroded and we have the materials to not only repair them, but also to upgrade them. We've found a lot of useful stuff in the Atlantis Databanks, also about Destiny. The relieve ships will also bring additional gear for the ship, advanced hyperdrive, shields, Asgard Energy Weapons and a lot more cool stuff for Destiny to use."

"I thought you searched the Atlantis database once we got aboard, you said there wasn't a connection?" Eli said.

"Yeah we did, Doctor Jackson actually used every word vaguely related to Destiny in his search. But after we met a real ancient we realized it was a typo." Telford explained.

"For real?" Cloe asked.

"Figures." Eli commented.

"Good to know that for all his knowledge and perfection he isn't infallible." Rush said a bit sarcastic.

"Depends on how you look at it, he ascended. Again." Telford said. "Does anyone have any other pressing questions?"

"Will there be a chance for us to return home?" Wray asked eagerly.

"In time, once we've upgraded the batteries and charged them we'll try to establish a connection. If we are successful you will all be allowed to visit your friends and family home. But since there won't be a problem with resupply shipments they may also come aboard Destiny, if they chose of course." Telford said.

"When will the IOA begin interviews?" Wray asked.

"The IOA are gone. In the initial bombardment of Earth the IOA HQ was destroyed, all but two were killed. Considering the amount of damage done by the IOA it was decided not to recreate the IOA."

"I see."

**TFS Mars**

**Colonial Defense fleet**

**September 9**

General Chekov was in command of one of the battleship squadrons the Tau'ri had sent to aid the Colonials. As it was, the fleet was under attack by Dominion forces. Only a couple of hours ago a dozen or so transport ships had slipped past the defenses and tried to invade Caprica, needless to say they were cut down by old Viper Mk. 2's patrolling at high altitude.

"General, the Normandy has had to retreat, her dorsal shields reached the five percent minimum." A lieutenant reported.

"Has her position been filled?"

"Yes sir, the Indefatigable took her position."

"A new Dominion wave is coming in fifteen minutes ahead of schedule." Another lieutenant reported. The Dominion seemed to maintain a pretty tight schedule for their attacks, something which only served in their disadvantage."

"Well that doesn't matter, we've taken this group out anyways." Chekov said as the last cruiser was blown apart by four nuclear missiles launched by the Eurilades, an older Colonial Fleet Battlestar.

"_Scratch one for the Eurilades!"_ the Colonial wireless reported in ecstasy. The wireless was reporting the entire battle 24/7. Most ships had it running in the background since it improved morale a bit.

The next wave was already approaching the defensive fleet. For some reason there always seemed to be one ship that ran into the minefield on purpose, leading to its destruction.

At extreme weapons range the MBDP's were the first to open fire, their range was by far the greatest and their combined fire usually took out a tenth of the enemy fleet in the opening salvo. Unfortunately, the closer the enemy fleet would get the more chance they would have of hitting their own ships so their fire slackened. The Dominion had learnt as much and did their best to close the distance with the alliance fleet. This however gave them another problem, their fighter screens had trouble establishing itself and therefore was unable to protect the capital ships from missile attacks and strafing runs by Alliance fighters. Among the Alliance fighters aces were plentiful, but so were death and exhaustion.

By the time the Dominion warships reached firing range of the Alliance warships their fighters had been eliminated by aggressive fighter squadrons, nearly fifteen percent had been eliminated by long range fire and bombers, and now they were getting into a whole new world of pain. They were met by energy weapons, both nuclear and conventional missiles and railgun rounds. Because of the destruction of their fighter squadrons the Battlestars did not need to create a FLAK barrier, it wouldn't do any good against energy weapons and the Dominion had very few ballistic weapons, and this allowed them to use their large caliber rail guns to fire offensive rounds.

In all fairness, the battles were always an Alliance win, they had made it that way by designing the bottleneck. The only way this bottleneck could be destroyed was by grinding the alliance down, destroying more ships then they could replace, or by doing a massive assault through the minefields, which in the end might give them a victory, but their fleet would be so depleted that it would more or less be a pyrrhic victory. Only a third but also equally destructive way was left, sending in all mother ships at the same time, several would be lost for sure, and most others would sustain heavy damage and it left all other Dominion lines open for counter attacks by Alliance forces.

"Sir, we've got one struggler coming in." A sergeant reported. "Wait, we're getting an energy reading from it, its charging something."

"Take it out, don't let it discharge whatever its charging!" Chekov said.

"Yes sir."

As one and az half a dozen Tau'ri warships surged forwards to intercept the cruiser. Just as the Tau'ri fired the cruiser detonated in a brilliant flash. The shockwave fanned out and as it reached the mines they were temporarily disabled. The effect on the six advanced Tau'ri warships was more dramatic, their power went offline and therefore the ships were left adrift. The rest of the fleet lost most of their sensors, only a couple short range sensors left working.

Because of their speed the six warships drifted forwards quite a bit. The 4 battle cruisers, one battleship and a LCS(306-class) threatened to drift into each other as people were working valiantly to restore power. Colonial tug boats moved to stabilize their course before damage was done but it wouldn't matter. Two 304's collided with each other and the LCS rammed the 305 near the left ventral plasma turret, ironically, if there had been power the resulting explosion would most likely have destroyed half the ship, now only the 306 was lost as it broke apart. A 304 that had regained its Asgard beaming capabilities evacuated the two 304's that collided before they were destroyed.

All the time they were unable to see what was forming up ahead of them. The residual radiation made it hard for sensors to see anything past the mine fields. As the 305 and the remaining 304 made a hyperspace jump towards Ragnar anchorage, the rest of the fleet prepared for whatever was about to come. Ragnar was transformed into a major fleet repair base. Its location made it perfect as a hiding place for the fleet. There was only one access to the anchorage and it was heavily guarded. It actually looked a lot like the Cau system, but smaller.

The first indication for the rest of the fleet to come was when the minefields activated. These minefields weren't your traditional mines but were controlled by a centralized control center that made sure no mine would go to waste; it would reposition mines on an as needed basis and focus on the most dangerous Dominion attacks first. The mines would only reposition when their perimeter was breached and the enemy was moving in more ships then the already present mines would be able to handle. So when more mines were redirected to the outer parts of the bottleneck where normally large numbers of mines were present, people got interested. For their control systems to respond in such a way a large fleet had to be incoming.

Eventually Vipers and F-302's got out to use their Mark 1 eyeballs, to have a look with their own eyes on what was happening. One such pilot was Louanne 'Kat' Katraine, the current CAG of the battlestar Tjolver.

"Actual, this is Kat. I'm nearing the halfway point of the minefield, DRADIS is clearing up a bit, but is still to deformed to make anything out." She reported to the Tjolver. She looked out into the space ahead; she saw dozens of large flashes which made it difficult to see what exactly was coming. Though suddenly a lull in flashes presented itself, what she saw was frightening. She saw no stars, and once a nearby explosion lit up the area she saw the fears of the Admiralty come true. She didn't waste any more time and turned her Viper around and kicked in their version of an afterburner to clear all the interference.

Once she was able to hail the fleet she sent out the message. "This is Tjolver CAG to all units, mark one eyeball confirmation on a Dominion mother ship incoming, several battle groups following suit."

**Colonial Presidential command bunker**

The president, her staff, the admiralty and the Joint Chiefs of Staff were all assembled to follow the events happening after the shockwave.

"Did I just hear that correct?" Roslin asked mortified.

"_Cat, are you sure?" _Tjolver Actual asked. Tjolver Actual was Commander Kara Thrace. Roslin looked up to the speakers overhead as if Thrace was there. She knew that Thrace was the Protégé of Admiral Adama, her lover/boyfriend/soulmate.

"_You bet your ass Starbuck, biggest mother fracking ship I've ever seen, the fracker blocked out the stars."_

"This is Negala to all units, you know what to do, everybody, get ready." Negala said.

"Admiral, we will deploy the Tau'ri's ancient defense systems correct?" Roslin asked.

"Yes, the Aurora Fleet will get into an ambush position and the Drone Chair at Caprica will fire the first drone. The plan is to target the Dominion power plants and hope that a chain reaction will form blowing the ship up from the inside."

"What are our chances?" Roslin asked.

"We'll survive one, if the drones wouldn't work we still have enough 305's to take down one mother ship, though the casualties will be high." Nagala said.

"The chance our ancient drones won't work is small." O'Neill said. He had taken a stargate and a beam transport to the presidential bunker the moment the Dominion mother ship was sighted. "Our own designed and produced drones may be weaker, but those aren't in circulation yet, even so, they won't be deployed to this battle."

"And you are sure about the drones?" Roslin asked.

"They did a great job against the Wraith. We haven't been able to field test it against Dominion ships but all simulations show a successful defense."

"Well, the time is now. Let's hope they work." Negala said.

'Yes, talking about the chair, I have somewhere else to be." O'Neill said. He wanted to control the drones.

In orbit all preparations were made. Instead of being spread out, the Tau'ri battleships came together, preparing to start their coordinated attacks on the Dominion mother ship. For as long as the battleships were preoccupied by the mother ship the rest of the fleet had to take care of themselves when it came to dealing with the rest of the Dominion ships. The battleships would be helped by the Aurora fleet and ground launched drones.

Aboard Galactica, Admiral Adama led his fourth fleet in battle. Miraculously none of the battlestars had been seriously damaged and they were all still in the fight.

"Lieutenant Gaeta, plot positions that will keep the fleet out of the mother ship's firing arches, we won't be handling those hit very well. The Admiralty wants us to cover quadrant nine, the mother ship will move through quadrants three to eight so we'll pass right by them. At least one Dominion battle group will pass through quadrant nine so we'll have a large fight on our hands all right."

As the mother ship approached the Dominion fighters came out from their hiding places behind the mother ship. This time their formations were organized and as they were engaged by Alliance fighters they killed much more fighters. As fighters from both sides collided into deadly dogfights, the mother ship plowed on through the minefield seemingly ignoring the naquadriah enhanced nukes going off all over the place. As the mother ship got three quarters through the minefield the first of the defenses opened fire. Back at Picon Fleet HQ a powerful computer composed of mostly Asgard tech calculated the best hit points for the defenses and battleships. This was done to get the most out of the firepower they could bring to bear. Likely targets were shield generators, weapon mounts and main power conduits; these had the tendency to cause chain reactions if hit.

Once the mother ship finally cleared the minefield stuff really started to heat up. While the battleships made their attack runs and the first drones were launched from Caprica, the colonial battlestars and the 304's advanced to engage the Dominion battle groups coming out from behind the mother ship. All ships were weaving in and out like hell to avoid weapons fire from the mother ship.

Aboard Picon Fleet HQ the Colonial Fleet News Service broadcasted the battle live across the Alpha system and back to Earth from where the channel service was spread throughout most of the galaxy. Their studio was small, but did give them a great view of the battle. In addition they were fed images from the ships itself, though usually with a delay as to not give the Dominion to much info and give the Colonial Fleet some time to censor classified data.

"_Oh my gods!" _the reporter said in shock. _"The TFS Renown just got shredded like it was nothing, the latest and most advanced Tau'ri battleship got destroyed, seemingly with all hands in just a couple of seconds. This ship was just delivered four months ago. Sporting several advances over the first batch of battleships it was thought to be more resistant against Dominion weapons fire, I guess they were wrong."_ The reporter said.

A second reporter joined in. _"Some stats on the TFS Renown, as said she was delivered just four months ago and despite all the secrecy around her construction it was clear that a lot of hope was put into her. A crew of 982 enlisted men and officers, not including the air wing and commanded by commander McKinney; a rising star in the Tau'ri fleet. May their souls be with their Lords and may they rest in peace."_

"_So say we all, so say we all."_ The first reporter said.

**TFS Tria**

The TFS Tria was the flagship of the Aurora fleet. General Ellis had his flag set up on that ship. His fleet was waiting for the go form General O'Neill to phase back and launch their drones against the Dominion Mothership.

"Sir, all ships report combat ready, power output is in the green. All ships are in position and we've got a positive lock on the target."

"Very well. Acknowledge to O'Neill and be ready to start."

As they watched the battle unfold before them they listened to the broadcast of the Colonial Fleet News Service and were shocked at the destruction of the Renown. As they watched, they could indeed see the remains of the Renown float harmlessly in space. A small positive thing was that a couple of white beams were evacuating survivors from the wreckage.

"Sir, General O'Neill is on the line."

"Push him through to all aurora's."

"_General Ellis, you have permission to engage the enemy, lets waste some of these motherfuckers."_

"Copy that sir." Ellis said before putting himself on the tactical net of the aurora fleet. "All units, engage according to plan, fire at will."

As one the five Aurora's phased back to normal space and opened fire. Five large bright yellow columns sped forwards to the mother ship. From Caprica a much larger column, dwarfing the others sped forwards to the mother ship. This was just an opening salvo as seconds later the Aurora's unleashed their plasma weapons on the mother ship.

The drones were the first to reach their targets, they were aimed at the points where the shield strength was the least. What happened surprised everyone. The first drones got through without opposition. The following drones however bounced of the shields harmlessly, fortunately these could be reused again, though with less strength.

As about a years' worth of Drone production was deployed against the mother ship the Aurora's started to take fire.

"One Dominion battle group is bearing down on us sir."

"How are our shield doing?"

"They are holding, the eight cruiser task force is moving in to assist."

"Good." Ellis said. "Fire control, I want you to try something else. Target what we think are the strongest parts of the Dominion shields, basically what we've been avoiding right now."

"Yes sir." Immediately the orders were relayed. "You know something we don't sir?"

"No, just a hunch."

A couple thousand drones were redirected from their paths to target the center of the main dorsal shields. Where so many weapons had failed, the drones succeeded. The drones passed through the shields without much resistance. Once through they went on a rampage, the armor was passed by the drones and compartment after compartment was shredded. Unfortunately the drones ran out of power before they could reach anything worthwhile blowing up.

Nevertheless, more drones were redirected and soon thousands upon thousands of drones were ravaging the outer hull of the mother ship. The outer hull was quite easy for the drones to penetrate. The inner hull however proved to be more of a challenge. It took more drones to break through the tough interior armor. But against the might of thousands of Ancient drones no physical barrier was resistant for very long. Eventually holes started to appear in the interior armor. Work stations, sleep compartments and anything else was ripped apart and exposed to space as drones passed through. The more vital areas were, of course, protected by additional armor and even force fields.

After a while of pounding some of the vital areas were completely surrounded by nothing, everything around them being wrecked. Eventually the ever vital power lines to and from these areas were severed and they became useless. This way, one by one, shield emitters, fire control stations and secondary power generators were taken out allowing for more damage to be done. Eventually drones were gutting the mother ship form the inside while the 305's were cutting through the hull from the outside aiming for primary power generators, the Achilles heel of about every space ship.

**Colonial Presidential command bunker**

"The Tau'ri are destroying that mother ship, they report about four more minutes until it is gone."

"Telemetry reports that twelve battle groups are forming up to attack."

"They are going to overwhelm us while we are still coping with that mother ship." Nagala said.

"What can we do about it?" Roslin asked.

"Tell O'Neill to pick up the pace and re-task the defense platforms." Negala said.

"I think he heard that sir, more drones are launching." A major reported.

A 3D map indicated the additional streams of drones coming up from Caprica. The five Aurora's in orbit indicated that they were out of drones already despite their large storages.

"Sir, the fourth fleet is moving in to block the Dominion reinforcements from entering the fight." A colonel reported.

"That's suicide." Nagala said as he looked up at the 3D map in horror. "Get me Adama on the line now."

Just a few seconds later Adama was on the line. _"Galactica Actual here."_

"Bill, what the frack are you doing?"

"_I'm buying you some time, once you have destroyed that mother ship you can get the fleet back in line and come back us up."_

The mother ship, which by now was getting pretty beat up floated motionless in space, its engines long gone. Nearby Galactica and the other eight battlestars of the fourth fleet got into position to block the incoming Dominion battle groups. Fire raged between the Dominion ships and the colonial battlestars as vipers engaged Dominion fighters, bombers and any other ship that dared to advance to far beyond the protection of the main fleet. Occasionally the lone transport ship got caught in some viper pilot's sights and was quickly destroyed.

The nine battlestars were formed up in three rows of three. As they reached their position they all turned 90 degrees upwards towards the dominion fleet. This allowed their bow weapons to fire as well as the flight pods turrets from both sides of the ship. This was about as much firepower a battlestar could throw at one target at once.

Once the Dominion warships got in range of the battlestars both sides opened fire. This time the Dominion ships seemed to be stronger. Their shields and weapons were both stronger and they were also quite a bit faster. Nevertheless the battlestars dished out a large amount of damage to the Dominion ships. One by one ships started to fall out of formation and explode. First the lighter types, mostly destroyers and frigates, but soon heavier classes like cruisers and even a battle cruiser or two were destroyed. Because of the formation the battlestars used only a relatively small part of the ship was exposed to enemy weapons fire, and power could be redirected to support the shields taking the brunt of the incoming firepower.

Inside the Galactica, Admiral Adama stood watch in the flag bridge. The most things he did was coordinate targets for multiple battlestars but even that wasn't so hard. His officers were well trained and knew what to do. In front of him a holographic representation showed the immediate area and basically what the fourth fleet's area of operations was. Above the holographic table an antiquated but still used DRADIS console hung, it showed real time positions of ships and fighter squadrons for the entire battlefield.

"Admiral, Dominion troop transports are heading for the planets, they are traveling along the outskirts of the minefields. Do you want me to redirect viper squadrons to intercept?" a Colonel asked.

"Negative, we've got ground forces to handle those troops. Our task right now is to maintain orbital supremacy, we can always help out the ground pounders once we're done here."

"Fleet HQ says that the mother ship is breaking up, they've done it!" someone reported. At once people started shouting and yelling and soon enough they could hear the same from the crew in the CIC and surrounding areas.

"Okay, calm down people, we're not there yet." Adama said to quiet them. "What is the status of the fourth fleet?"

"Sir, the Andara and Remembrance are both in big trouble, their shields are down to less than 25 percent and they are starting to take damage to their outer hull. Other ships including Galactica have already lost over half their shield strength. Viper and Raptor squadrons have sustained moderate casualties but are still combat effective."

Adama had a look at the holographic field and what he saw didn't make him feel any better about his situation. "They are trying to get through on our left side. Both the Andara and Remembrance haven't had the overhauls the rest of the fleet has." Adama looked at the screen a bit more before deciding what to do. "Tell the Tjolver to take over the positions of both the Andara and Remembrance once they have jumped to Ragnar. Also retask three squadrons from our central screen to reinforce the left flank." Adama ordered.

Mere seconds went by before the Tjolver started to move towards her new position. The Andara jumped out but the Remembrance didn't.

"What the frack is wrong with the Remembrance?" Adama inquired.

"Commander Sorcyntus is reporting FTL problems."

"Get him on the line." Adam said. A few seconds later an ensign nodded to tell him that he could speak with the commander. "Sorcyntus get your shit in order and get the hell out of there, you'll be dead if you won't." Adama said.

"_Sorry sir, but the Dominion managed to hit the plasma fold heat sink in engineering, our FTL won't be coming back online anytime soon. Considering the situation it might not come back online at all._"

"Then make some room for the Tjolver and keep fighting 'till you can't. When that happens, abandon ship."

"_Aye sir, Remembrance out."_

Adama turned to one of his subordinates. "How long will they last?"

"Not long, they are already taking hull damage and the shields are failing. There are also isolated hull breaches occurring across the bow." The subordinate reported.

"Very well."

"ETA of friendly forces approximately three minutes."

"We might just not make it that long." Adama mumbled as the ship around him shook violently while in the distance claxons alerted the DC teams of damage.

"The Remembrance is evacuating sir, she's suffering from structural damage to the alligator head."

"She's also charging forwards and arming all remaining nuclear weapons."

"And commander Sorcyntus?"

"He's going down with the ship."

"Well, it's his funeral." Adama said. He didn't like it that he'd lose an experienced commander, throughout the fleet there was a shortage of personnel, losses were higher than the replacements.

The battle started to turn in their favour, the first squadrons of vipers and 302's started to appear on the battlefield. In the background a couple of 305's and a battlestar group were busy destroying the remnants of the mother ship. The 305's would blow up the largest chunks while the battlestars would reduce the rest to bits that wouldn't damage the planets. Eventually the reinforcements arrived in full force and Adama was able to jump what remained of his fleet to Ragnar for repairs and resupply.

**An hour and a half after the destruction of the mother ship.**

**Tamasio, Caprica, twelve colonies**

**1****st**** armored division 'Old Ironsides'**

Lieutenant Lane, CO of 2nd platoon, 2nd tank troop, 1st battalion, 35th armored regiment, 2nd heavy brigade combat team stood in the turret of her M1A5 Schwarzkopf tank. She commanded hers and four other tanks that made up the platoon. Her tank was of a new design, though based on the American M1 abrams tank it was extensively modified and upgraded to warrant giving it a new name. among one of the greatest improvements was the small shield generator allowing the tank to withstand numerous hits by enemy medium caliber rounds. Because of the naquadah power cells the tank could last a lot longer before returning for a refuel. It also allowed the use of more armor on an all-around base, the most vulnerable areas were upgraded to the standard of the front armor, while all armor was upgraded with new alloys making them lighter and more durable. Another improvement that was just filtering through in other designs was the storage of munitions, food and water. Each of these were held in databanks digitally. They were stored there by using a combination of Wraith and Asgard tech. Popular believe had it that a Schwarzkopf tank was as close to a RV as was possible, even basic toilet facilities were present, although not recommended when on the move or under fire. While already in production for over a year only the armored units on the colonies had been equipped with the tank since their demand was the most urgent.

Since the landing of Dominion forces about an hour and twenty minutes ago the 1st armored, together with the second and third armored divisions and a number of Colonial mechanized divisions was en route to face the enemy forces on Caprica. They had performed a fast march to the city of Tamasio and were now only about twenty-five kilometers away from the town of Karditsa where raptor recon units had spotted the advance of Dominion forces twenty minutes ago. Their job was to perform a first strike against the Dominion forces before they could consolidate their positions and to eliminate the entire ground force of about four hundred thousand soldiers. What would work in their advantage was the dominion's lack of armored and fast moving units, instead they relied on heavy artillery and infantry attacks to do the job.

Initially space forces would have bombarded the Dominion forces from space but small shield generators had prevented this. Therefore ground forces would attack and destroy the enemies forces. Fortunately all civilians had been evacuated long before the Dominion arrived and were now safe somewhere in one of the large city fortresses. The first armored division would lead the spearhead through the Dominion lines. The second and third would cover their flanks while the Colonial units would mop up any remaining units that would be bypassed by the armored divisions. The final destination of the advance would be Faloreia over seventy kilometers from their current position and the center of the Dominion forces.

"_All Hitman two victors, the Battalion is Oscar Mike in five minutes."_ The voice of the company CO came in over the radio.

"Hitman 2-2 copies." Lieutenant Lane replied after 2-1 had copied the message. The third platoon's CO also copied. She turned her comms to platoon wide. "All Hitman 2-2 victors take five, take a leak and grab a bite to eat, we're gonna be in combat for the foreseeable future." She said. The four other tanks copied her message and she herself called down to the loader to get her something to eat.

Five minutes later after her platoon had gotten something to eat and had relieved themselves they were all ready.

"_All Hitman victors, we're Oscar mike to waypoint Bravo, maintain speed at 55 KPH."_

As one the Schwarzkopfs started moving. The Bradleys that were the mechanized part of the battalion were a bit ahead of the tanks but not by much.

For the first fifteen minutes nothing happened and the units advanced unopposed.

"_All Hitman victors, slow down to 15KPH, hostile foot mobiles spotted at about five clicks, prepare for combat."_

"Hitman 2-2 copies." Lane replied. She had a look at the position of her tanks and found the need to correct one. "Hitman 2-2 to Victor 3. Martinez, get your fucking ass back in line, your lagging behind."

The response of Martinez was quick as the tank moved up a bit to get back in line with the rest of the armor.

"_Victor 3 to Hitman 2-2, I've got foot mobiles in the open at my twelve, range 3300, permission to open fire?"_

"Negative, orders are to close in to machine gun range and take out any foot mobiles that way." She took her binoculars and got a quick look on the contact to confirm it. She switched to battalion coms. "Godfather this is Hitman 2-2, I have a confirmed contact with hostile foot mobiles. Closing in to machine gun range."

"_Copy Hitman 2-2, continue on your way. Godfather out."_ Godfather was the callsign of the battalion CO.

Lane switched to her internal comms and told the loader, a sergeant with the nickname Sunny to get up top and man the second machine gun. She herself had a .50 machine gun in front of her, many upgrades were made to it and it was able to hit a target at about 2500 meters.

As the distance was reduced more and more weapons were readied and more and more targets were spotted. It seemed that the Dominion were caught in a bad spot, they were out in the open and had nowhere to go for cover. About five hundred of them were walking through a field until they noticed the dustclouds of the approaching vehicles. Instead of turning around to find some cover they ran towards the vehicles trying to close the distance.

"_Godfather to all Hitman victors, open fire at will."_ The word came down on the battalion net.

As one nearly a hundred guns opened fire, within a minute the Dominion soldiers were cut down and the battalion moved on. No casualties nor any fire was taken.

A couple minutes later they reached the outskirts of a small village. It only consisted of a few houses and a gas station. The village was right in the path of Hitman 2-2 and Lane and the other commanders were already searching the village for signs of Dominion forces.

"Godfather, this is Hitman 2-2, request permission to level gas station in our path."

"_Hitman 2-2, request granted, fire when ready."_

"Copy, thanks."

"Gunner, target gas station, 3400 meters, twelve o clock." She said over the internal coms.

The 120 mm railgun was aimed at the gas station, a round was already in the barrel and the railgun coils were already charged.

"Gas station targeted, ready to fire." The gunner replied.

She prepared herself for the soon to come shock of the launch of the projectile. Though not as violent as with previous models it still gave quite a bang. "Fire."

The tank jumped back a bit when the round left the barrel on target for the gas station. Once it hit the gas station the gas station exploded violently, apparently the Colonial engineers tasked with evacuating the area had forgotten to pump out all the fuels and especially the Tylium stored there. Nearly a quarter of the village was wiped out while fire and debris showered down on the rest of the village. Soon enough Dominion soldiers came out of the remaining building to engage their attackers. The tanks laid down suppressive fire while bradleys closed in to engage the Dominion forces and to drop off their infantry. While the bradleys were far ahead the five tanks of hitman 2-2 advanced using leapfrog tactics, first Lane's tank and that of Martinez advanced two hundred meters while being covered by the other three and when they were in position the other three tanks advanced and the process was repeated until they were about 500 meters away from the village. The infantry was having a hard time driving out the Dominion and some help of the armor was required. The five tanks quickly dispatched of every position the infantry fed them and within ten minutes the village was clear. The damage to the village itself was extensive and little would remain of it once the fires were out. The infantry had two fatalities and about a dozen injuries which had to be evacuated by space hawk. Twenty minutes after Lane's tank had fired the first shot her unit was already on the move again to get back into position, leaving a large column of smoke behind.

"Godfather this is Hitman 2-2, we're back in position and ready for orders." Lane reported.

"_Copy Hitman 2-2, good job on the village. We've got a massive hostile force incoming at about 5000 meters, we'll close in to weapons range before halting and opening fire. Be aware, infantry will dismount._" Godfather replied.

"Copy Godfather. Hitman 2-2 out."

Lane picked up her binoculars and had a look for herself. She was surprised as hordes of Dominion forces were running towards them. They did use the natural cover of the terrain. The area was long used as farmland and therefore had numerous ditches and hedgerows, it basically looked like a bocage. She could see the faint glow of the shields as energy passed through it, the wrong way.

"_All Hitman victors, hostile artillery inbound! Shields to full and hatches down."_

The barrage was devastating. Several bradleys and Humvees were destroyed and numerous shields were depleted. Nevertheless most units got through with only shield damage.

_Hitman one and two, hold position and open fire on Dominion forces to provide cover fire. Hitman three, four and five, advance to infantry fighting range and dismount. All victors will provide cover fire from then on."_ Godfather relayed over the battalion coms. What it meant was that the two tank companies, Hitman one and two would provide cover fire while the mechanized infantry companies, Hitman three, four and five would approach the enemy lines to about five hundred meters and dismount the infantry which would then clear out any and all Dominion positions with the support and cover of their transports and the tanks.

"All Hitman 2-2 victors, halt position and fire at will. For Christ's sake remember to stick to your designated areas." Lane said to her troops.

"Driver full stop." The tank came to a rather abrupt stop.

She used her binoculars to find a Dominion strongpoint and quickly found one that was giving away its position way to early.

"Gunner, Target, between twelve and one, distance 4400, around three trees close together."

"Target found. Round loaded, ready to fire."

"Fire."

The round left the barrel and quickly reached the target. it hit one of the trees and exploded showering the area with shrapnel and pieces of tree. Most of the dominion soldiers were killed and the rest was to wounded to return fire.

"Good hit. Next target…" Lane continued to give more targets which all one by one were destroyed.

Suddenly the world around them exploded.

"Shit." Lane said as she realized what happened. "All Hitman 2-2 victors, advance 150 meters ASAP. Advance 150 meters every five rounds." Somewhere the Dominion had spotters calling in strikes for the artillery.

"Godfather, Hitman 2-2 here."

"_Go ahead Hitman 2-2."_

"Interrogative, are there any Dominion spotters?"

"_That's most likely, intel is already on it."_

Once they were about 1800 meters behind the infantry forces she could clearly see targets ideal for .50 fire.

"Loader, activate autoloader and get up here for the 7.62. Gunner, use your discretion when finding targets, fire at will." She said as she got up to her waist and manned the .50 bmg. It was equipped with a holographic sight that also checked for friendly units through a sort of IFF system and automatically warned if friendly units were near or in the line of fire. It also showed points indicated by other units to contain hostile units. The autoloader could replace the loader when he/she was up top using the 7.62 but was a second or two slower than the experienced loaders. When the loader was not up top, it could not be used because it would harm the loader because he/she would be in the way.

As she looked through her sights she got a clear view on a dozen or so Dominion throwing grenades and firing full auto with their weapons. They had an entire squad pinned down in a ditch. She had to be carefull not to aim to low because then she would hit the friendlies. As the computer (yes the gun has its own computer) aided her aim she let loose a small burst. It hit right on target. she quickly let loose a longer burst and also spread it out horizontally to cover all the Dominion. As she looked over her gun she followed the tracers and saw the satisfying little green explosions as Dominion soldiers were no doubt being ripped apart. As she went on to find her next target a small screen next to her gun showed a message from the unit she had just helped out, thanking her and inviting the crew to come have a beer the next time there was any alcohol in the vicinity.

Next to her the 7.62 was also firing away at numerous targets.

Suddenly the loudest noise she had ever heard came overhead and when she looked up she saw hundreds of rockets heading for the Dominion side. She guessed that these were intended for Dominion artillery batteries hammering the Tau'ri units.

The driver had been advancing every five rounds fired and by now they were getting close to the first hedgerow they would cross.

"Driver, advance slowly through the hedgerow, slowly."

And the driver advanced slowly through the hedgerow. On the other side she found numerous corpses, most were Dominion, but she saw two friendlies, being secured but their comrades waiting for an evac on the medevac bird for two wounded soldiers. Fortunately they weren't in anyone's path.

They now advanced towards the infantry units which were having a hard time advancing through the hedgerows. In this particular part the hedges were extremely dense and hard to push through for the dismounted infantry. On occasion bradleys would drive straight through the hedge though half the time they were subjected to hostile fire once they got stuck in the hedge. The other half of the time they managed to make it far enough for the infantry to get through and take out Dominion strongpoints that were now forming.

"_This is Godfather to all Hitman one and two victors, advance to aid the infantry in breaching those hedges, we're taking too much casualties the way it is."_

Lane used her binoculars to find the nearest unit that needed some help and quickly steered the driver in their direction. Once the driver reached the squad she had him stop.

She got the attention of the squad leader and he was running towards them. "Hey, heard you needed sixty tons of pure fighting skills on tracks."

"Yeah, UAV shows two strongpoints, on at your four o'clock and one at your eleven. They seem to pack quite a punch, at least against our Bradley. He said as he pointed to the Bradley they had been using before, it was a burnt out wreck, its entire front side destroyed.

"Kay, we'll punch through right here." She said.

"Driver prepare to advance. Gunner, take the target at eleven, I'll suppress the four o'clock long enough for the infantry to get through and take it out. Loader, look for any roaming targets not yet identified." She said. She checked her weapon one last time and so did the loader next to her.

"Driver, you may advance when ready."

Immediately the tank moved forwards. They went up a little bump as they forced their way through the hedge. On the other side, the shields were immediately pummeled with plasma. The turret quickly moved to target the strongpoint at eleven, while Lane had already turned her .50 to four o'clock. Once she got the dominion troops in her sights she let loose several long bursts, while the gunner destroyed the other strongpoint. By the time that was done the infantry squad had already stormed through the hole and was firing m302 grenade launchers at the position. Within thirty seconds the two strongpoints were destroyed, at no loss of life on their side, although the shields did drop by 37 percent.

They repeated the process another three times before they reached the outskirts of a village, or what was left of it anyways. It was nearly completely razed by friendly artillery fire. Somewhere through the middle of the village the edge of one of the enemy shielded areas passed. It was quite large, about ten kilometers in diameter, though compared to the fortress city shields or the ones on earth, they were nothing. Ahead of them they saw a couple of bradleys and a tank pass through the shield at a slow pace.

"Godfather, this is hitman 2-2, I have reached the Dominion shields, request permission to pass through."

"_Negative Hitman 2-2, wait for your platoon to catch up before going through. Hitman 4-2 will accompany you through, work with them to clear the boccage landscape from there on. Their ETA is eight minutes."_

"Copy Godfather, Hitman 2-2 out." Lane said.

As her tank slowly moved towards the edge of the shield the infantry squad walked alongside the tank. "Sergeant, what victor are you from?"

"Victor four, Hitman 4-2. We lost contact with the rest of the company but were told the rally point is a couple hundred meters up ahead."

"Okay, 2-2 and 4-2 are to team up from now on, the rest of your platoon is 8 minutes out."

"Thanks."

"_Victor one this is Victor three, we're two minutes out."_

"Copy victor three." Lane said. "All Hitman 2-2 victors, make for the rally point be there in five."

A number of affirmatives followed.

Eleven minutes later both units had arrived and had teamed up, one squad per tank. Most of the infantry had lost their bradleys and only one was left. From what intel they had they would have cover for about a kilometer before they could engage the enemy. They would go through the shield and advance that kilometer before engaging the enemy.

As the tanks moved through the shields their own shields momentarily flickered. Most shields allowed slow moving units to pass through, while fast moving objects, like bullets, rockets or even fighters would not be able to pass through.

Up ahead another unit was fighting as well. They had just cleared a crossroads when 2-2 arrived. 2-2 would move left, while the other unit was ordered right. As they moved on the fields they cleared got larger, but so did the amount of hostile forces.

Though they continued encountering Dominion forces, they were less and less organized and easier to destroy, they didn't set up strongpoints or ambushes. Most were on their way to the front unaware that it was closer than they thought.

At one point nearly three hundred dominion were caught off guard on an old road, needless to say the two tanks which managed to get a clear line of fire on the Dominion, slaughtered the soldiers.

"LT, what's that up ahead?" the loader shouted over the noise of the engines and weapons fire of another tank.

Lane used her binoculars to get a good look at it before using the screen beside her gun to open a small database on Dominion field weapons. After less than a minute of searching she found it.

"It's the shield generator." Lane said. "Driver, hold." Immediately the tank stopped, the infantry took defensive positions to the sides. "Gunner, target straight ahead, 5600 meters, elevated target."

"_Got it."_

"Load tactical Naquadriah round." A tactical Naquadriah round caused quite a large explosion, nothing like a nuclear explosion, but far more powerful than the regular rounds used. The reason that is wasn't used as often was because it left a pocket of radiation in the vicinity.

"_Loaded."_

"Godfather, this is Hitman 2-2, hostile shield generator found, firing TNR."

"_Copy Hitman 2-2, good luck."_

"Gunner, Fire."

The tank shot back nearly a meter as the round left the barrel. It took a second or two to reach the target, but once it did, the target's top part was completely destroyed. At once the Dominion shields ceased to operate. Things such as communications and UAV cover immediately improved considerably.

"Godfather, target is history."

"_Copy, air cover inbound."_

As they watched the generator crumble further they could already hear the sounds of jet engines approaching.

Their convoy had stopped about three hundred meters away from an intersection. Suddenly Dominion troops appeared from two sides and started firing at them. They immediately returned fire. Bushes were cut to pieces by large caliber rounds and railgun rounds.

These dominion weren't the regular units they'd been slaughtering all day long. These were more along the lines of special forces, for the Dominion anyways. They used the cover of the terrain to close in on the two platoons and attack them in the flanks.

"Godfather, this is Hitman 2-2, we are taking fire and require support."

"_Copy Hitman 2-2, close air support in on station in thirty seconds. Lead callsign is Bronco 1, frequency 22."_

"Copy Godfather, Hitman 2-2 out."

**Bronco flight**

Bronco was the callsign of a flight of four A-10D Thunderbolts. Though the original A-10 was quite old and not immediately connected with the high tech warfare going on at the Colonies it still proved invaluable after numerous upgrades were made. In fact numerous weapon systems now in use were heavily based on older materiel in use during the late stages of the cold war and the middle eastern wars. The M1 Abrams and the A-10 were only a few of the designs copied and reused for newer vehicles now in use by the Tau'ri armed forces. The older systems proved to be reliable and with new technologies incorporated also very effective and durable.

Lieutenant Colonel Mathers, AKA Bronco 1 led his flight of four A-10D's towards the spearhead of the Tau'ri advance into the Dominion incursion force. His aircraft largely had the same load out as was possible before the upgrades. His GAU-8 cannon now allowed for naquadah laced rounds to be fired, but also the regular rounds. Most of the GAU-8 ammunition was stored the same way as aboard the Schwarzkopf though the loading was automated. Fifty minutes ago his flight had taken off from Thiva Colonial fleet air arm base, the largest of the four air bases around the Caprica City-Delphi defenses.

"_Bronco one, this is Hitman 2-2, do you copy?"_

"Hitman 2-2, this is Bronco one, I copy. What do you need?"

"_We need danger close air support at our north, east and west. Dominion forces have us pinned down and we cannot retreat."_

"Copy, how close?"

"_Between 50 and 300 meters."_

"That's pretty danger close, can you mark the targets?"

"_Already done, IFF has been activated, do you receive?"_

"Receiving IFF and markers five by five. We're inbound, tell your people to keep their heads down and we'll clear this mess up for you. ETA 25 seconds."

"_Will do, smoke 'em."_

His HUD displayed the IFF and markers properly and he quickly formulated a plan of attack and sent it to the other three aircraft.

**Hitman 2-2**

"All hitman 2-2 and 4-2 units, friendly air support inbound, danger close , keep your heads down." Lane warned.

Twenty seconds later hell broke loose around them. First, their flanks were cleared by two A-10's and a couple of seconds later their front was cleared by the other two A-10's. the strike couldn't have been more devastating. There was hardly anything left that could identify the massacre as Dominion forces. All that remained were smaller body parts and loads of green Dominion blood.

"Holy shit." Lane said. "All victors, Status report."

"_Victor 2, no damage, shields at 22 percent."_

"_Victor 3, no damage, shields at 54 percent."_

"_Victor 4, heavy damage to front armor, shields disabled."_

"_Victor 5, moderate damage, no shields."_

"Hitman 4-2, status report?"

"_This is Hitman 4-2, we have 12 KIA and another 24 WIA, medevacs inbound, we are combat ineffective."_

"Copy 4-2." Even though the a-10s had given support quickly over half the platoon was taken out of the fight and coupled with earlier losses it had made the platoon unable to fight on. "Godfather, this is Hitman 2-2, our mech infantry is out of the fight, how do you want us to proceed?"

"_Hitman 2-2, wait until 4-2 has been evacuated, then proceed to rally point gamma, the First is being pulled back, the Second and Third have taken out the other shield generators and most Dominion forces have been destroyed. we're done here, see you back at the rally point."_

"Copy, Hitman 2-2 out."

**Situation room, Atlantis**

**September 12, 2024**

The president had his daily situation meeting with the members of the war cabinet. Usually some were absent because of business elsewhere and sent deputies to the briefing.

"General Maynard, would you please start today."

"Yes sir. As you are aware, on the 9th heavy fighting occurred in orbit of Caprica. Subsequently a small ground invasion followed. Today we are finally able to present most of the facts of our offensive against this invasion force." Several graphs appeared on a screen. "As you can see, a total of 120.000 soldiers participated in the offensive, of which approximately 55.000 were Tau'ri. At first the advance went without a hitch." A top view showed the units advance. "Advanced units were easily disposed of, here there we suffered a casualty or two." A replay was shown of Hitman 2-2's attack on the gas station. "However, what we didn't take into account was the nature of the terrain ahead of us. It turned out that the area had been long ago settled and over time a boccage style landscape had been created."

"Like in Normandy during the invasion in the second world war?" the president asked.

"Yes sir." Maynard said. "This gave us, just like 80 years earlier, a lot of trouble, the Dominion picked up on the opportunities of the landscape fairly quick. The result was a massive battle, with massive losses on both sides, only through the combination of armor with infantry and the advanced technologies such as shields and UAV's were we able to overcome the obstacles and push through and succeed. Eventually all objectives were reached and 24 hours after operations had started all Dominion forces were destroyed and our troops were back at their staging points. Now, our losses were high, nearly 10 percent, a total of 5490 soldiers were killed while double that was wounded in all degrees. The enemy deployed around 400.000 soldiers and they have all been killed."

"How long until all losses have been replaced?"

"About two weeks, the priority isn't very high right now because the enemy doesn't have enough forces to force another breakthrough, though that is more of the territory of General O'Neill." Maynard said.

"I see. General O'Neill what is the fleet status for the colonies?"

O'Neill stood up and he too had some stuff to put on the screens. "Mister President, as you know we've taken some losses. So far we have lost four battleships, three of which were caused directly by the mother ship, the fourth was rammed by a 306 ship and was later deemed unsalvageable. Of the 40 battle cruisers we lost eleven, of which six during the mother ship attack. The colonial losses are a bit higher, of the 105 operational battlestars in the system at the start of the siege, 34 have been lost, of which 18 during the mother ship attack. What is left, though damage not included are 16 battleships, 29 battle cruisers and 71 battlestars. As I said, most of these are damaged and a number are at Ragnar being repaired. The 305 fleet got through undamaged, though they did deplete more of their drone supply than we had expected."

"Are there enough drones to replenish the supplies of the Aurora's and the chair device?"

"Yes, there are numerous storages, though most contain our own version of the drone, which is significantly weaker but can be mass produced more easily."

"How many souls did we lose that day?"

"Approximately 3800 in orbit and 5490 on the ground. The colonials lost in excess of 40000 souls."

"Okay, on to other things, what is the status of Operation Longbow?" Ryan asked.

"We have been able to pinpoint the location of destiny and a cruiser group has been sent as well as transport ships with the required materials for long term operations in the region. In a couple of days we expect to hear back from General Young, by that time we should have a viable plan for capturing, reprogramming and transporting a drone strike force to a Dominion owned galaxy far behind their lines."

"Okay, I want to know that plan whenever its ready." Ryan said. "So, what else? How about operation Black Adder?"

General Maynard stood up. Black Adder was a special forces campaign involving mostly ground forces. "Sir, We've been inserting teams on Dominion slave planets and supply depots since they have entered the galaxy. It is only since the loss of the Aschen territories that our teams have been able to have great success."

"Ever since the Dominion incursion they have been exterminating planet after planet. On the other hand, they have been leaving groups of people alive to do their dirty work for them, usually hard labor such as ship construction and the likes. On the Aschen main planets they started with a large planet wide bombardment, but they did not go on to destroy the entire planet. They took out the infrastructure, power grid, civil services, everything that could resist their invasion. Now they are using what remains of the Aschen people to do most of their work. There are large labor camps near the cities. Though most cities have been destroyed, reduced to ruins, the majority of the people live there. A limited form of agriculture still exists though also under Dominion control. The environment which has been created by the Dominion is very advantageous for our teams to carry out missions."

"The Aschen territories are not the only place where we have been operating. On numerous planets we are executing such missions as blowing up supply stations, attacking barracks etcetera. Most of our teams have been inserted by the 160th night stalkers, special operations aviation regiment, they have been equipped with puddle jumpers, LCS-306 ships and other useful toys."

"How much damage have we done already?"

"To much to count basically. We've destroyed numerous supply depots, this combined with the wolf pack attacks have created serious munitions shortages to frontline Dominion units. We estimate that the amount of Dominion soldiers killed through bombings, sabotage and other means is in excess of one million, though might easily be much higher. The real plus point however is that a large amount of Dominion forces has been diverted from the front lines to combat our special forces teams."

"Have there been drawbacks to the tactics used?"

"Yes sir, as was expected the Dominion have taken to retaliate against local populations, often killing hundreds for one small attack and killing thousands, sometimes even tens of thousands for larger attacks. Also, on some occasion the Dominion have issued bounties to capture or kill our strike forces which has cost the lives of some of our operators already. Also, there have been reports from fringe planets where the Dominion are supporting one group to dominate the other groups and also nearby civilizations. Usually these planets don't have anything of worth to us or the dominion except for their location on the flanks of the dominion warpath. We have been supplying weapons, food, medical supplies and other goods to opposition parties to hold the Dominion at bay and cause them problems. Fortunately the Dominion don't want to devote any troops to these planets because they are already to spread out as it is and with mounting losses at the twelve Colonies it isn't going to be easier for them. I can have General Meiers of SOCOM prepare a detailed briefing about ongoing operations and operations in the planning stages."

"Yes that would be great." Ryan said. "General O'Neill, what is the status of our new ships?"

"Sir, both the 308 and 309 class are nearing completion, approximately three months for the DC-308 and only two weeks before the CVZ-309 is ready. Currently our newest fighter, the DF-310 is in production though only enough for eight squadrons have been built so far, all these will be deployed to the first CVZ-309. As you know, the 310 is a drone fighter, it can be controlled by an on board AI or from aboard the carrier. In theory it can also be controlled from a ground station, assuming they have the appropriate equipment. The Viper Mk.9 we have been working on together with the Colonials will still take a few months to complete the designs and trials before it can be adopted for mass production."

"I heard the committee couldn't agree on a name and you made your own suggestion?" Ryan asked.

"Yes sir, though all names were very fitting the name I suggested somehow didn't make it to the list."

"What is the name of our new class of space carriers?"

"Enterprise sir."

"I see. So when will the TFS Enterprise make her maiden voyage?"

"Well, she'll be done in about two weeks. The crew needs to get used to the ship and run drills but all in all I think that she'll be combat ready in a month or so."

"Where will her first assignment be?"

"As it is she'll be added to the general reserves. We do have plans to deploy her to the outer territories to make a show of force to all those who might side with the Dominion and do their dirty work."

"That's good, so what else's going on in the universe?" Ryan asked.

"Yesterday, the Ghost princess Amarah signed a treaty with the entire alliance, following up on the treaty they have with us. The terms are almost the same, though a bit more limited in regards of advanced technology." The Secretary of state said. "Also, she requested and was granted the permission to marry Major Barclay at Heliopolis. The entire ceremony is slated in a couple of months, she wants it to be a low profile wedding with a few dignitaries from around the galaxy. The queen herself will also be present and will arrive by ship and take a small escort fleet. Afterwards the queen will return home, probably through Atlantis and the princess and Major will make a honeymoon throughout the galaxy."

"Do they now there is a war on?" Ryan asked.

"Sir, this presents another problem." General Conway (TFMC) said. "Assuming the princess will retain her right to the throne of the Ghost empire, Major Barclay will be forced to resign before the marriage is finalized. The princess being from a foreign power, though friendly, but also in a position of power the major cannot be allowed to be near classified military secrets which exist in his current workplace."

"Has someone told him the bad news?"

"Yes sir, he'll turn in his papers a month before the ceremony. He understands the situation and has requested to be given a civilian position in an Tau'ri or Alliance service on the Ghost home world." Conway said.

"This might be a good thing sir, his ties and connections here will allow him to further the bond between the Ghost and the alliance." Keller said.

"Well, if it's possible, make it happen." Ryan said. "What's next?"

After a brief moment of silence General O'Neil started. "Sir, a while ago you authorized the retrieval of Elizabeth Weir, who at that time had her conscious trapped in a frozen replicator body. Just a couple of days ago a ship retrieved the body and extracted the conscious from the body. After that the old body was destroyed and the remains ejected into space while the conscious was downloaded into a new Tau'ri made body. The transformation seems to have been successful."

"That is very good, what is happening to Doctor Weir now?"

"The ship is in outer space as a matter of precaution and scientists and doctors are running tests on the body and mind. So far tests show that the entire body is working properly and could later even be used to 'grow' missing limbs, replace organs and the likes. This may very well be the medical breakthrough we've been waiting for."

"That does sound very promising. I'll have a meeting with the surgeon general to get all the details and see how we should proceed with this."

"Mister president, with all due respect I urge you to make haste on implementations on this for military personnel, daily, soldiers get into hospitals and lose limbs or organs, this could very well allow us to return these soldiers to a combat posting within a few months." General Maynard said.

"I understand you General be we also need to be aware of the dangers to such a technology." Ryan said. "What do the Asgard and Ancients say about this?"

"Well, not much. Both haven't used nanite technology in recent history because the Ancients had their own healing capabilities or would Ascend and the Asgard would simply download into a new body."

"Okay. Does anyone have anything to add, either on this topic or any other?" Ryan asked. No one responded and most shook their heads. "In that case I call an end to this meeting. Dismissed."

**that's it for now, if you like, you can leave a review (I would appreciate it)  
**


	13. TFCIA Dominion Fact Sheet

at the request of some people I've created the following document. i hope you like it. this is just something in between chapters, the next one is still far out so sorry if you thought this was the next chapter already. i may incidentally update this, but im not sure about that yet.

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TOP SECRET-TOP SECRET-TOP SECRET

TAU'RI FEDERATION CENTRAL INTELIGENCE AGENCY FACT SHEET:THE DOMINION

FROM: DIRECTOR ED FOLEY, TFCIA

TO: SENIOR GOVERNMENT AND MILITARY OFFICIALS, NOT FOR DISTRIBUTION

VERSION: 14.3.7

DATE OF PUBLICATION: 23/11/2024

SUMMARY

**BACKGROUND:**

First contact by Tau'ri Federation forces was made by the TFS Odyssey under the command of then Colonel Emerson at April 18th 2015. At this time the Dominion forces, unprovoked, fired upon the aforementioned ship. At this time the Odyssey was in contact with another race known as the ORI, further detail on this encounter can be found in the Odyssey log book no.419. since this first encounter Tau'ri forces have never been friendly with Dominion forces.

**GEOGRAPHY:**

The area the Dominion race occupies is unknown, but from captured records it seems to be hundreds of galaxies in size.

Milky Way Galaxy: Dominion forces invaded the milky way galaxy at August 23rd 2023. The incursion point is located at approximately 28.000 light years from Earth, this now forms the main arrival area for any and all Dominion forces entering the galaxy.

At the time of publication the Dominion forces have approached Earth to a distance of approximately 6.000 light years. Their current lines have absorbed the former Aschen territories. At this moment a large part of their operational fleet is located at the Twelve Colonies of Kobol, executing a siege of the system. The TFCIA thinks, and the TF military agrees that the siege will not last much longer and Tau'ri and Colonial forces will be forced to retreat. The details of Dominion forces and planets, as well as their current operations and positions can be found in attachment 1. An area estimated at about 21 percent is currently occupied by, or threatened by Dominion forces.

Asgard galaxy: approximately 4 months after the invasion of the Milky Way galaxy the Dominion forces invaded the Asgard galaxy. Due to the small amount of habited Asgard planets the Asgard have seen fit to use another strategy, namely one of hit and run tactics for as long as the Dominion are far enough away from their main planets. Tau'ri military forces are assisting in this war by offering knowledge, ships and troops. At this time an estimated 27 percent of the Asgard galaxy is occupied or threatened by Dominion forces.

**POPULATION:**

The number of Dominion is as of yet unknown, but estimates put the number well over the five trillion. The population so far encountered seems to be an integral part of their military in so far that their mother ships, also carry a large number of noncombatant personnel, even in battle. Only a small number of planets so far encountered have contained a settled Dominion population, these planets may be new Dominion planets or may be temporary settlements.

The Dominion language seems to be like anything we have seen before. Fortunately an extensive library is available for any and all forces and intelligence agencies.

CHARACTERISTICS:

The dominion themselves are a large people, easily towering over 7 feet in height. The Dominion have a green/grey skin color, if shot their blood will be green as well. For what we can tell, the Dominion can age into the thousands of years, perhaps even tens or hundreds of thousands of years in age. Every time we have managed to capture a Dominion warrior alive we have not been able to get it talking and they have always attempted to commit suicide, oftentimes forcing their guards to kill them.

Beyond this not much is known about the Dominion population.

**GOVERNMENT:**

No known intelligence service has ever been able to obtain solid information on Dominion leadership. However, it is assumed that the Dominion are led by a dictator, some sort of royal family or a small elite of powerful members. At any rate, the leadership seems to be undisturbed by heavy casualties to their own forces, even at little to no reward. It also seems to be standard practice for Dominion forces to wage war against anyone they encounter.

**ECONOMY:**

Not much is known about the Dominion economy. Intelligence suggests that Dominion forces occupy planets to extract all useful resources and then abandon them. What these resources are used for is not entirely clear. It is expected that a large amount of resources is used to fuel their war economy by building their ships, but nevertheless, they mine more than they need. Therefore it is suspected that the Dominion also use these resources to ship home for domestic use.

In addition to the planets that the Dominion strip bare of any useful resources there is a second kind. Namely the kind where the Dominion build their ships using slave labor. These planets also produce a number of other products but not much is known about those products. These slave labor planets have been infiltrated by Tau'ri, Colonial, Tok'ra and Free Jaffa special forces, oftentimes conducting special operations to obtain information, plant tracking devices or sabotage the production of ships and other war materials.

There is very little information about any currency or unemployment within the Dominion territory.

**COMMUNICATIONS:**

The Dominion have varying ways of communication, these range from simple on board wired lines to sophisticated, though decodable long range communications. Insofar we have not yet encountered any means of communication that cannot be cracked, except for their short range tactical battle net. This battle net can however be jammed by nearly any ship in the Tau'ri fleet.

**TRANSPORTATION:**

Most of the transportation done by Dominion forces calls for the use of ships. At this point there is no intelligence that the Dominion use some sort of matter transportation like the Asgard beaming system. In addition it is noteworthy that the Stargate network is only used in limited terms, mostly for attacks on planets that have no Dominion orbital supremacy.

**MILITARY:**

The Dominion military is enormous. It relies on overwhelming numbers and large nearly indestructible mother ships to tip the scales of battle. Only a large number of our advanced 305 class battleships can take one of these mother ships down.

Following is a short list on the various types of ships, a full list can be found at TF military intelligence HQ.

-Escorts, Frigates and Destroyers: these ships are small, numerous and without much weaponry. These usually serve as screening ships, taking the fire from our heavier weapons.

-Light Cruisers: these are the somewhat larger versions of the Destroyers, they have the dual role of screening for larger ships, and commanding small units consisting of escorts, frigates and destroyers. When in command of the aforementioned ships it usually serves as a command ship for patrol and scout units.

-Heavy Cruisers: these ships are the bigger brothers of the light cruisers. they have sufficient weaponry to fight it out with an older Ha'tak class or smaller, less advanced allied ships. They usually stay close together or near a battle cruiser. In large groups these ships can do considerable damage to any ship in the allied fleet, safe for the 305 class and our newest designs in capital ships.

-Battle Cruisers: these are the main components of any Dominion Battle group. As far as intelligence has been able to confirm, there are no battleships within their fleet. Traditionally the battle cruiser was a fast, powerful under-armored vessel. For the Dominion it seems to be nothing different, though their speed is about the same as for any Dominion ship.

-Mother Ships: these are the Dominion's most powerful ship known to us. They have the power to destroy any of our ships in a one on one fight. Fortunately, the Dominion only have a limited amount of these ships available. Most of them are currently participating in the siege of the Twelve Colonies. These ships command entire fleets, they seem to carry a large crew, though they may also be generational ships, as the Travelers did before they went to live on the Midway Station. The defenses are formidable, the shields are second only to Ancient designed city shields, which are now in use on Atlantis and on a small number of planets, such as Earth, Caprica, Picon, Tauron, Geminon, Dakarra, Chulak, Heliopolis and several others. These ships use a kind of energy we have not yet been able to determine, only that it easy to destroy them by blowing up the power generators. General Ellis of the Aurora fleet has been able to destroy a mother ship using Ancient drones, for further references on this event see the TRIA log book no.223.

To this date Tau'ri forces have been able to destroy 7 mother ships:

24/06/2015: Special Forces placed and detonated a nuclear device near a mother ship's main power generators. See TFS Odyssey log book no.419, chapter 4.

09/04/2023: Tau'ri forces, protecting an evacuation fleet, blew up two jump gates tied into a black hole, the subsequent explosion destroyed not one, but two Mother ships. See TFS Sol log book no.99, Chapter 8.

20/08/2023: during the first invasion attempt by the Dominion one mother ship is destroyed by the detonation of a ZPM. See TFS Sol log book no. 105, Chapter 9.

09/09/2024: the first Dominion mother ship attack on the Twelve Colonies ends in its destruction. This is the first time a mother ships is destroyed by Tau'ri weapons fire instead of mass destruction. See TRIA log book no.223 chapter 12.

11/10/2024: the second Dominion mother ship is destroyed at the siege of the Twelve Colonies. See TFS Mars log book no. 55, chapter 13(to be published).

29/10/2024: the third Dominion mother ship is destroyed at the siege of the Twelve Colonies. See TFS Jupiter log book no. 19, chapter 13(to be published).

GROUND FORCES:

Estimates suggest that the Dominion have approximately 40-55 million soldiers ready for deployment in the Milky Way galaxy. The Dominion ground forces are not very suited for combat against our own forces. They have few heavy weapons, let alone any fast vehicles. Their firepower lies in their artillery, it can fire at long ranges and therefore lay down a proper cover barrage. Our expectations are that once the Dominion attempt to seize a shielded fortification, they will be unable to use their artillery and they will first have to establish proper emplacements for their artillery. It has been noted however that since recent Dominion defeats at the hands of Colonial and Tau'ri mobile units, the Dominion themselves are starting to employ certain types of mobile equipment. Their use of this equipment however, is not to their best use.

Recent intelligence reports suggest that the Dominion will require twice as much forces as they have in the entire galaxy to have a moderate chance of conquering the four remaining planets of the twelve colonies.

**TRANSNATIONAL ISSUES:**

Because of their warmongering nature the Dominion are bound to have numerous conflicts, it is however expected that most of the Dominion's enemies have already been destroyed. Beyond the wars we have no knowledge of any transnational issues.

THIS IS THE END OF THE SUMMARY, THE DETAILED REPORT CAN BE FOUND ON THE GOVERNMENT'S CLASSIFIED MAINFRAME. AT ALL TIMES BE AWARE THAT THIS IS TOP SECRET MATERIAL AND SHOULD BE TREATED AS SUCH. THE ENEMY IS ALWAYS WATCHING AND LISTENING. PUBLISHING THIS REPORT WITHOUT PROPPER AUTHORIZATION IS PUNISHABLE BY DEATH UNDER THE RYAN/ROBBERTSON ESPIONAGE ACT OF 2023 DURING A TIME OF **WAR**.

TOP SECRET-TOP SECRET-TOP SECRET

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**so i hope this was a bit informative for you guys. if you like me to do these on other races or perhaps even Earth (though that would be a lot harder) let me know, and if possible a suggestion on which race. **


	14. Chapter 13

**thanks to Rudy Pena and just-a-crazy-men for the beta.**

**so chapter 13 has arrived. have fun and tell me if you like it**

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From the biography of General Patraeus: 'Part three; the Twelve Colonies.'

_As commander of all Tau'ri forces in the Cyrannus system I was also in command of the space forces. Every day, the pool of available ships was diminishing. Earth wasn't going to send in anymore ships than those that were already present. At the time of the second mother ship attack I had to push every ship into combat, it cost us. Within a few weeks the third mother ship attacked, this one was even more devastating. Our fleet had still not recovered from the previous attack and we lost almost half the fleet. There were more ships at Ragnar undergoing critical repairs than there were ships fighting against the Dominion. _

_Meanwhile, two Dominion ground waves made it through all the chaos in orbit. Though both attacks were eliminated it did do a number on the Colonial mobile units. We also got a chance to test our forward defenses, they worked admirably and while on the defensive we suffered few losses. For the time being our air force was more than capable in dealing with Dominion ground forces._

_We knew that we were doing our job well. The Dominion offensives across the galaxy were ground to a hold. The only advance they made was because we let them advance. Every planet in their path we evacuated, we destroyed its infrastructure and anything else the Dominion could use, naquadah sources were booby-trapped so that they were useless to the Dominion. _

_At any moment, the Dominion had 3 to 5 mother ships in the Cyrannus system. A whole fleet containing numerous battle groups accompanied them. For some reason these units never participated in the attacks, they just made up the siege fleet. _

_The Tau'ri military had three armies at the twelve Colonies, the first, eight and eleventh armies. The first and eight armies were on Caprica, the first at the city of Nos, which surroundings held over a tenth of the entire Colonial pre-war military industry, and the eight at Caprica city. The eleventh army was posted at Tauron to help the, in comparison, lightly defended planet. Taurons had been considered the lowest of the colonies for decades and therefore no large amount of effort was put in defending the planet. Fortunately the Taurons mostly lived in a cluster of cities so their defense was manageable. The eleventh army was tasked with defending the colony. Fortunately Taurons had been oppressed for centuries and therefore had numerous hiding places and underground tunnels in position, the rebels were also willing to aid the Tau'ri forces as guides in return for immunity which they were granted immediately. _

_Across the four planets there were millions of colonial soldiers ready to defend their cities in long before prepared defenses. Some of the defensive lines, such as those near the city of Nos were in existence for hundreds of years. On the eastern approach to the city, swamps were plentiful and these were covered by old fortifications and the only two highways through the area were already readied for destruction. The only downside was that there were only two defensive lines before the eastern part of the city would be reached. And if indeed that city would be taken, and the defenders pushed back onto the industrialized peninsula that lay behind the city, the entire western and southern defense force would be cut off._

_By the time the fleet was at breaking point the senior military staff practically lived in the presidential bunker. All non-essential personnel was evacuated from Picon fleet HQ station. Only the defense forces were on the station to man the defenses._

**Colonial presidential bunker**

**Government plaza, Caprica City, Caprica**

**November 28**

General Patraeus was on watch duty in the presidential bunker. The senior admirals and generals rotated watch duty every six hours. With the amount of senior admirals and generals present one only had to stand watch every two to three days. There were very few Tau'ri personnel working in the bunker, only the generals and some techies to supervise the advanced equipment.

"General Patraeus?" a Colonial lieutenant said. Patraeus walked over to the lieutenants station. "Sir, we are detecting hyperspace activity."

"That's probably the new attack groups incoming." Patraeus said.

"That's what I thought at first too sir. But at around the same time we picked them up, the Dominion siege fleet started rearranging their positions, they may be preparing for an assault."

"Transfer the information to the holographic table."

The lieutenant transferred the information to the table and it focused on the Dominion fleet.

Patraeus looked at it for a few minutes. "Can you make an overlay of all the previous mother ship attacks? Their starting positions and their trajectories."

Quickly the lieutenant went to work and soon the requested information was incorporated, it matched perfectly.

Patraeus turned to a Colonel in the corner. "Wake up the chiefs and warn the president. Get the commander of Ragnar on the line, the Dominion are gonna storm the system."

The colonel immediately went to work on waking the chiefs of staff and the president while a captain got in contact with Ragnar. "Sir, I've got Ragnar on the line."

Patraeus picked up one of the old wired phones. There were headsets available but Patraeus didn't like them. "Admiral, Patraeus here, I need you to get as much as possible ships ready for immediate combat, the Dominion are going to send in mother ships again, we need 305's out here ASAP."

"_What is the timeframe sir?"_

"They just arrived and are forming up now. I need those ships in 30 minutes at most." Patraeus put the phone down when the Admiral finished. It was just in time to see the chiefs come in shortly followed by the president.

"General Patraeus, what is going on?" President Roslin asked as she walked in.

"Madam President. A short while ago we picked up on new Dominion fleets coming in. At the same time the siege units started rearranging. Once their trajectories were compared with the previous mother ship attacks it turned out they matched. They may very well try to rush our defenses and overwhelm us with superior numbers. As it is, they have five mother ships in orbit and most likely a sixth inbound. As you can see on the holo table the previous attacks all took a slightly different route, and it is possible for three mother ships to take these same routes and not be in each other's way."

"We can't win this, can we?" Roslin asked.

"No. considering the status of our defense platforms we can most likely take out the first three mother ships before they can do too much damage. If we redirect the rest of the mines we can damage at least two more mother ships giving us the chance to destroy those too, the last one however will take damage but will most likely not be destroyed, we simply don't have the firepower available." Admiral Nagala said.

"Such a tactic will also open up the way for the Dominion to attack our MBDP's in the asteroid belt. All our mines would be redirected to combat the mother ships. It is a last stand defense. Even if we would somehow be successful, they would swarm us with their regular battle groups and destroy our battered and scattered ships." Patraeus said.

"So if I understand correctly, we're lost one way or the other. We will lose orbital supremacy and be open for ground attacks." Roslin said. Both Nagala and Patraeus nodded. "Then I suggest you do your best to take down as many mother ships as possible, every mother ship we destroy will give our allies a larger chance to beat them back and eventually liberate the colonies. If by the time we cannot do any more meaningful damage to the Dominion you are allowed to pull all ships back to Ragnar and from there to allied space. Is there also a way to evacuate those MBDP's once they come under fire?"

"The crews can be evacuated and the stations set to auto mode." Patraeus said.

"I actually meant the station itself."

"I'll have to check with General Carter about that one, it may be possible to bring a couple aboard the launch bay, but it would require a couple of undisturbed minutes." Patraeus said.

**Ragnar Anchorage **

Two admirals, a Vice Admiral, and a Rear Admiral (Lower Half) made their way down one of the many corridors of the Ragnar anchorage.

"How are you doing son?" Adama asked.

"Good, considering all that's happening." The younger Adama had lost three of the four battlestars under his command, only the Pegasus was still left.

"And Gianna and the kids?"

"They've been evacuated to the evacuation planet Alpha. You know, in terms of Gianna and me, the second Cylon war was the best thing that ever happened to me."

"How's that?"

"Well, when I left her, I was scared, I was scared of having my own child, that I couldn't be there for him. But when I saw you in command I remembered that though we missed you, we were always proud of you and you did your very best to be home. Once all operations were finished, after the victory parade in Cap city, I went back to see if she was still alive. See, the war also showed me how fragile life is, and I wanted to be with her. So, I apologized and admitted my fears. I think you know the rest." Apollo said.

"Yes… how old are they now?" Adama asked. Both hadn't seen the kids for a while, they had been on deployment before the siege started, and since then, they hadn't had a day off.

"Joe is nearly thirteen now, Tamara and Shannon turned nine a month ago and Zak, Zak is a smart ass at the age of five." Lee said.

Yeah, I remember the two of you when you were young, shortly after I was reconstituted in the Colonial fleet. You remember that picture that was taken, you and Zak standing beside me at the side of my Viper?"

"Sure do, the deck gang gave it to you for the retirement right?"

"Yeah, as well as that very same Viper, I still look at it every day."

"_Now hear this, now hear this, all personnel is ordered back to their ships, multiple Dominion mother ships inbound, it's all hand on deck for this one."_

"I guess we'll have to finish our conversation later on." Adama said.

"Yeah, see you afterwards."

They both went their own way as Galactica and Pegasus weren't docked at the same pier.

**Helios Alpha system**

Already several Colonial and Tau'ri ships had reported in from Ragnar, they were now taking up position with the already present fleet. In the distance the Dominion fleet moved into position to attack and in between the two forces the minefields condensed, ready to punish the Dominion ships that dared go through them. This would be the Colonies' last stand in space. The battle might also very well determine the fate of the rest of the galaxy, if enough of the mother ships would be destroyed the Tau'ri fleet had even more time to build up their advanced fleet with the newest warship designs such as the carriers and drone ships. Already their efforts were paying off, most of the Dominion advance had halted, or had at least been slowed to a crawl. The Dominion now also had to rely on much weaker allies to do even the simplest of jobs at their own flanks.

In the distance, the massive hulls of the Dominion war fleet were already visible, slowly approaching the mine fields. In response most of the mines were condensing in their path, this would be a last stand, their last chance to destroy as many as possible Dominion warships.

As the remains of the fourth fleet jumped into the system Admiral Adama was given command of the fleet. All Tau'ri Generals and senior Fleet Admirals were killed already leaving Adama as one of the few flag officers, and as highest in the chain of command. Of course, Admiral Nagala and part of the Admiralty were on Caprica advising the president but they didn't have operational command of the fleet. General Emerson had been recalled and was now assigned to the prestigious Enterprise Carrier Battle Group while General Chekov was reassigned after having made some wrong comments after one to many shot of ambrosia.

As the last of the allied ships jumped into orbit, the first three mother ships started their advance through the minefield.

This time no speeches were made, no stations were made battle ready as they already were. Adama made only one call.

"Admiral Nagala? I'm gonna need some drones up here."

"_We're already working on it Adama, we're breaking out all the stores we've got, it might just be enough."_

"Thanks." Adama turned to someone in the flag bridge. "What do we've got?"

"The Aurora's are the most battle ready unit we've got, no casualties and their stores are at 85 percent. We've got six 305 class warships, eleven 304 class warships and 19 Battlestars. All ships are suffering from moderate to heavy damage. Air groups are at full strength though with a lot of green faces."

"That'll change pretty quickly." Adama said. "Alright, this is what we are going to do…"

The Aurora group would target the first wave of mother ships, they would target shield generators and power relays so to let the 305's do their magic on them. The ground launched drones would do the same for the second wave of mother ships. The MBDP's would take care of the battle groups and when possible target the second wave of mother ships.

Already large streaks of drones were moving into space heading for the Dominion mother ships. The numerous air groups were forming up waiting for the moment to launch their missiles before engaging the Dominion fighters or re-arming for another run.

The entire fleet readied itself for the onslaught. Everyone knew that there was a big chance they wouldn't make it out alive.

At three quarter of the way down through the minefield the mother ships started taking fire from the drones and from the Tau'ri battleships.

At first they almost seemed hesitant to engage, as though they had expected the defenders to pack up and leave at the sight of the Dominion fleet. A strange thing considering the tenacity the defenders had shown in combat with the Dominion since day one of their time in this galaxy. But after the first few seconds they returned fire at will. Their first salvo was more or less wasted as they tried to hit the drones and fighter formations, needless to say they didn't hit very much. After a while they changed targets and got better results, shields started to drop in strength. Fortunately, Dominion shields started to drop in strength as well, and at a much larger rate.

The drones did the most damage. Already, the first Dominion mother ship was losing shields and power to weapons. In seconds, the 305s made good use of these holes in their defenses and started chewing at the outer edges of the mother ship.

At this time one flight of fighters using the experimental Viper mk.9 made their own attack. Under cover of a pair of ECM raptors they made their approach to the mother ship. When they reached the part where there was no shield they got close to the hull and followed it all the way to some still unidentified shafts, that led all the way down into the ship. Both fighters carried two mk.8 nuclear warheads and the plan was to shoot all four down those shafts into the ship and detonate them once they were there. This would hopefully damage the mother ship enough to take it down.

"_This is one, approaching waypoint Delta."_

"_One this is two, we've reached waypoint Echo, ready to commence strike."_

"_Two this is one, commence strike in five…four…three…two…one, now, now, now!"_

At the first 'now' the pilot would bring the viper up so that it had a clear line of fire to the shaft and the RIO activated the weapons targeting system and activated the nuke itself.

At the second 'now' the pilot leveled the viper with the target and the RIO got a positive lock on the shaft, the data was relayed to the two nukes and locked in their very precise navigational software.

At the third 'now' the first nuke was launched of the rails and half a second later the second nuke left the rails.

Once the two missiles were clear and away the vipers turned around and kicked in the 'burns. They headed for the nearest hole in the shields and went through it back towards one of Caprica City's main fleet bases where they would rearm and wait for the next opportunity. The chance that they would get to destroy another mother ship was slim, the rest of the squadron was up and waiting for a chance to strike as well.

The, in total, four missiles quickly reached the two shafts they activated revers thrusters to slow down. Once they had slowed down enough they ejected the nuclear warhead into the shafts where they would fall until they reached a set location deep within the ship.

Just when the two vipers had gotten away from the ship the four nukes detonated simultaneously. Though all four combined not as strong as even one mark 9 nuke they were spread out at two locations and the subsequent damage was massive.

"_Wow, that was some sight to see."_ Jeff, one of the two reporters from the CFNS (Colonial Fleet News Service) said. Both had been enlisted in the Colonial marines so they could stay aboard Picon fleet anchorage station since all civilian and non-essential personnel was evacuated.

"_Yeah, I wonder how they managed to get a nuke at that location. The Tau'ri couldn't have beamed it in, the Dominion can easily jam it, jump drives can't jump through their shields and as far as we know no drone has the ability to carry a nuke or produce a detonation as large as a nuclear detonation of that size."_ The other reporter commented.

"_Well, I hope that whoever did this can reproduce it and take out those other five mother ships as well."_

"_Amen to that."_ Jeff said. _"Now look at the way those drones are cutting into that second mother ship. Man, at this rate the fleet might just survive."_

"_I wouldn't be so sure about that Jeff, the Pegasus seems to be struggling to keep the Dominion away. And look over at the Aurora fleet, they are really getting targeted by the Dominion this time, that looks like over a dozen battle cruisers while the Aurora's are still busy with launching their drones at the mother ships."_

"_They should have emptied their stores in a couple of minutes, i guess they'll take care of those ships then."_

**Flag quarters, TFS Enterprise**

**Forward fleet support base, Alpha Centauri**

General Emerson was going over some intelligence reports in his quarters aboard the TFS Enterprise, the first true Tau'ri built space aircraft carrier. The Enterprise carrier battle group was supported by 2 DC-308 Drone Carriers, the TFS Freedom and TFS Independence, as escorts it counted five 304 class battle cruisers and three 306 class ships. The bulk of the carrier air wing (CWV-1) was located aboard the Enterprise, but five of its squadrons were based on the 304's.

"_General Emerson, I have a call from the Chief of staff for the Space forces."_

"Thank you, patch it through to my quarters." Emerson stood up and waited for the hologram of General O'Neill to spawn.

"_General Emerson, it's good to see you."_

"General O'Neill. Good to see you too."

"_How's the big E treating you?"_

"Very good sir. These are the biggest personal quarters I've ever seen on a warship." Emerson said. "With respect sir, I doubt my new command is the reason why you called, so what's up?"

"_Yes, that's true. As you may have heard the Dominion have commenced an attack with six mother ships on the Twelve Colonies."_

"I hadn't heard, but please continue sir."

"_Well, General Patraeus reports that the fleet might be able to defeat these six mother ships but will be forced to retreat afterwards. They will evacuate as much as possible space based assets to Ragnar before moving to a secured location. I need the Enterprise to be ready to support any such moves when the time comes."_

"How about the tour through the Gamma sector?"

"_Delayed until further notice."_

"And what's happening with the Freedom and Independence? I still haven't heard about them."

"_Oh, sorry 'bout that, they are currently busy loading up additional stores of drones, they should be at Alpha Centauri within 24 hours."_

"At which point would I be able to expect marching orders?"

"_It'll be at least another 96 hours before the remnants of the fleet would have performed sufficient repairs to jump to safety, but more likely at least a week, perhaps two."_

"Yes sir, we'll be ready as always."

"_I know, good luck and stay sharp. O'Neill out."_

Once the hologram was gone Emerson immediately turned on the radio which was already tuned into the CFNS galactic channel. Even for the military not in the Cyrannus system it was the best source of intelligence on the battle raging. For the troops in the Colonial hold out the news was instant, but for anything beyond those four planets and the immediate space there was a delay of about five minutes, both for transmission delays and censorship reasons.

"_That takes care of number five! Did you see that, the exact same way as the previous four."_

"_Yeah, and finally the Admiralty has seen it fit to share some information on the way they have been able to take these five mother ships down. So here it is; a squadron made up of the best Tau'ri and Colonial pilots has been trained on customized Viper mk.9's to fly special operations close to the hull of the Dominion mother ships and deliver specialized nuclear devices at a secret location where their detonation will do massive, catastrophically damage to the mother ship."_

"_Well, I hope that squadron can take out the sixth mother ship as well, the fleet is in really bad shape. What do you say Jeff, how long would they last in this?"_

"_The battlestars are already taking damage to their hull and some of the Tau'ri ships are also showing signs of shield failure. I'd say that without the defense platforms the fleet would last only about fifteen minutes, even after that mother ship is taken down." Jeff paused. "Yeah… this fleet will be done soon."_

"_Oh, shit, by the gods. The Admiralty seems to be really generous today. For all those of you who are watching the video channel of the CFNS you will momentarily see the HUD camera for one of the pilots that will execute the attack on the last mother ship. This is something that has never been done before, the broadcast I mean."_

Emerson quickly turned on a screen that was mounted on the wall and tuned into the CFNS channel. Even for a seasoned combat fighter it was a sight to see the approach to the mother ship. The broadcast even included radio traffic between the pilot, the co-pilot, the second plane and the controllers.

The picture he got was of the fighter on its approach to the mother ship. To the trained eye it was clear that the ship was staying to the side of the main firing arches to decrease the chance of being hit by friendly fire.

"_Red one, Red two here, we've got some additional weapons fire coming in from our seven o'clock low."_

"_Copy, rise by angels two on the vertical plane, stick to my six red two."_

The two vipers rose by two kilometers, it seemed nothing compared to the mass of the mother ship in front of them, but it was enough to keep them away from the deadly friendly fire.

"_Red flight, window will be open in ten, for about five, copy."_

"_Red one copies, commencing entry."_

By the time the two vipers reached the holes in the shield the fire had stopped. They quickly got in and stuck close to the hull as the weapons fire continued behind them. All the while the commentators didn't say a thing. Once the two fighters split up the screen was split in two, each side showing the HUD camera of one of the vipers.

As the vipers got closer to their targets people all across the known galaxies got closer to whatever type of screen they were watching.

"_Red one in position."_

"_Red two in position."_

"_For all the boys and girls whom are watching this very educative broadcast of the colonial fleet I would like to explain what's going to happen next. I will commence a countdown starting at five and ending with three 'now's'. at the first 'now' I will bring my viper up to get a clear line of fire on our target and my RIO will activate the weapons targeting system and the nuclear warheads and their missiles. At the second 'now' I wil level my viper with the target and my RIO will get a positive lock on the target, the data of this will be relayed to the navigational software of the missiles. At the third 'now' the first missile will be launched of the rails and half a second later the second missile will leave the rails."_

"_Cut the chatter red one, start the countdown." _Someone who was in command ordered irritated.

"_Copy. Red two, commencing countdown. Five… four… three… two… one, now, now, now!" _

The viewers barely had enough time to see the exhaust flame of the missiles before the vipers violently turned around and raced for safety. They made it out of the death zone in time but were nowhere safe as the detonation threw chunks of debris into every direction.

"_They did it!, the fleet did it! By the Gods, they defeated the mother ships."_

"_Yeah and the rest of the fleet seems to be disengaging. We've won this round!"_

"Hell yeah, good job Adama." Emerson said. He got up, turned off the equipment and put on his jacket. He then went on for the short walk to the bridge.

**CIC, Galactica**

Adama was forced to take command from the CIC, the flag bridge was in shambles and the CIC wasn't doing much better, but was still usable. Despite the loss and devastation all around them the crew was ecstatic for doing what no one had thought they could do.

"Admiral Adama, we're getting messages of congratulation from numerous sources."

"Such as?"

"The admiralty, the president, the Tau'ri president and joint chiefs of staff, the alliance leadership, the Free Jaffa, the Asgard, numerous generals and admirals in the colonial and Tau'ri military among which general Patraeus and Emerson…"

"Emerson? What did he say?" Adama asked. Emerson and Adama had become quite good friend the last few months.

"The normal; congratz, we'll be there when you need us."

"Good."

"Sir, the transports are arriving from Ragnar."

"How much platforms do we need to evacuate?"

Approximately eighty can be reused, the rest is to damaged and will self-destruct once we give the order."

"Do we have enough room on the transports?"

"Ehm, I'm not sure sir. We may not have enough transports to evacuate all platforms."

"Then prepare to take some aboard. The hanger bays should each be able to handle two, it might get cramped and we won't have much room for landing operations but it should work until we can get to Ragnar."

"Sir, the ministry of intelligence estimates we have about two hours before the Dominion will attack again."

"Well, I want everyone out of here within the hour, the ministry of intelligence has been known to be wrong in the past."

"Yes sir. The wounded have already been offloaded and both the Pegasus and Atlantia have evacuated to Ragnar for emergency repairs."

**Tau'ri war cabinet meeting**

**Situation room, Atlantis**

**December 12**

It had been two weeks since the final battle of the twelve colonies and things had started to settle down. The fleet was still at Ragnar but was almost ready to leave. The Helios Alpha system was now firmly under Dominion control, the space anyways. Since day two of the siege the Colonial and Tau'ri ground forces were in combat with Dominion forces. No real losses had been sustained, nearly all Dominion attacks had been halted at the first defensive lines. The Enterprise group had been moved close to the system to aid in the evacuation of the fleet from Ragnar.

Right now, the chairman and vice chairman were at Dakarra outlining the Tau'ri's involvement in the overall strategy and the adaptation of tactics that had been discovered since the Dominion had entered the galaxy. Things such as the weakness of Dominion shields against drones and the up close manner in how a couple of vipers could destroy a Dominion mother ship. The Free Jaffa leadership, as well as the Alliance leadership, was impressed by the broadcast of the CFNS and was subsequently much more willing to listen to the experienced Tau'ri and even Colonial commanders. Because of this, Admiral Robby Jackson, formerly a USN pilot, was made senior military attaché to the Alliance council, in theory a step down from his former position of chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, but in reality he now had the ability to influence, perhaps even make alliance military policy, which was quite a big step up. His replacement was the vice chairman, General Cartwright, and his position was filled by Admiral Sir Stanhope, formerly chief of staff for the now disbanded navy. The few remaining jobs of the navy were mostly transferred to the space forces.

As per tradition, the president was the last to enter the room. Once he did all personnel stood up and were quickly waved back in their seats, this president didn't mind a more relaxed working relation as long as it remained respectful and efficient.

"So how far are the Colonials with their evac?"

"Admiral Adama thinks he will be ready in two days. The Enterprise is standing by ready to jump in at a moment's notice."

"What is left, I heard one battlestar had to be abandoned last night?"

"Yes sir, the Eurilades was suffering a catastrophic fire in the engineering section. Last night the ammunition stores were about to catch fire and it was decided that the ship had to be abandoned and pushed away. A couple of hours later it was destroyed by the pressure of the gas cloud."

"What remains are the five Aurora's, two 305 class warships, three 304 class warships and surprisingly nine battlestars, though most of them heavily damaged."

"Jezus, nineteen out of what? A hundred and fifty?" Ryan asked.

"Yes sir, a hundred and fifty-four to be exact."

"But we did take down nine mother ships, that's five more than we had ever dreamed of." O'Neill reminded the president. "We also took down hundreds, if not thousands of Dominion ships of all sorts and halted their entire advance. We have reinforced our position within the alliance and have given Teal'c and Bra'tac and the progressive party an enormous boost in power, just by defending the Colonials so fanatic. It has also shown the worth of the MBDP's and silenced the opposition against them. I dare say that they were responsible for the 100+ to one kill rate we managed to achieve."

"General, I completely agree with you and the 100+ to one kill rate sounds wonderful on television, but if the Dominion can throw a thousand times our numbers against us, we'll be short 900 kills per loss." The secretary of defense said.

"I completely agree sir, but right now, the Dominion can't field that many ships. And, we are constantly increasing the power of our ships, just ten years ago we were still constructing the first 305 class warship, hell, a little bit over 20 years ago we launched our first space ship, the Prometheus and it wouldn't have survived a second against a 305 class. While the Dominion haven't shown a single sing of innovation and adaptation of their tactics, their strategy or their ships."

"Let's move on to other things people." Ryan said. "I heard General Sheppard had good news on the colonization effort."

"Yes sir." The secretary of state said. Colonization was a tricky jurisdiction, several departments were involved and constantly struggled to get as much attention as possible. "General Sheppard has collected a list of about twenty planets both worth colonizing and not claimed or inhabited by any other race. He has also categorized them by…" the secretary was cut off as numerous secret service and military personnel rushed in with drawn weapons.

"Agent Price, what's going on?" Ryan asked the head of his detail. Alarms started blaring informing everyone on Atlantis to stay put due to an 'internal security problem'.

"Sir, just a few minutes ago there were numerous attacks across the galaxy, all targeted senior civilian leaders, so far we've heard that half the Free Jaffa council has been killed, the alliance council chambers were stormed as well and we haven't heard anything about losses there but they are bound to be high."

"How dangerous are they, is Atlantis safe?"

"Sir, they managed to infiltrate the Colonial presidential bunker. They were stopped fifteen feet short of the president's private chambers. Compared to that bunker, Atlantis is an open playground."

"What do we do now?" Ryan asked.

"We're preparing a secured site on Atlantis, right now we can't evacuate you because all the jamming that's going it. We're thinking about moving you to one of the ships in the shipyard." Price said.

"Miss Price, during the attack on the Free Jaffa Council, what happened to the chairman and vice chairman?" General Conway said.

"We're not sure, all the report said was that they were seriously injured and could not yet return home. We've already sent a medical team to check them out but we haven't heard back yet." Price said. She listened to her earpiece as new information was fed to her. "Sir, Admiral sir Stanhope just passed away and General Cartwright is in a coma, Admiral Jackson at Heliopolis has been wounded lightly. Early estimates are over 50+ KIA at Heliopolis and another 2-3 hundred wounded, they attacked the entire assembly at once. The TFS Centurion is ready for takeoff, we need to move."

The entire group moved out at once, a group of marines cleared the way ahead while the secret service did the protection for the president himself and other marines secured the war cabinet, just a few feet behind the president.

Agent Price had her gun in one hand, aiming it up. In her other hand she had the right arm of the president dragging him along, or if necessary, push him to the ground. The secret service had trained for it countless times, 'how to protect the principal', every agent knew what to do when a threat was sighted or heard, from every direction imaginable. Some would push the principal to the ground, or in the car, others would get between the principal and the threat on purpose, others would secure a perimeter and engage the threat. In the end all was done to protect the principal, his or her life was priority number one.

The group went through one corridor after the other, they couldn't use Atlantis' own transporters because they couldn't fit enough people, and the Asgard transportation system was disabled because of the threat. At every side corridor a couple of marines covered the group as they passed.

"Where… are Cathy… and the kids? Ryan asked out of breath.

"Secure." Was all Price said.

"Where! The White House?"

"No, Marine Barracks, 8th & I street."

"Why?"

"Not now, keep moving sir." Price grumbled.

They reached the actual shipyards that surrounded Atlantis. The shipyards were not just the largest in the Tau'ri Federation, they were actually the largest in the entire galaxy. Now with the CVZ and DC yards and several more being built, the moon indeed was where the fate of the galaxy was being built. There were only about a dozen other shipyards spread through the galaxy that had the ability to build 305 class warships, let alone either of the two carrier types.

They were getting closer to the TFS Centurion, a 305 class battleship, it was almost done and it already had an entire crew onboard working on getting her ready. After the recent losses at the colonies half the 305 fleet was gone and the leadership wanted every ship it had out on the line. The alliance had a list of targets that were wide open for attack, but only with a limited time frame, after the time expired the Dominion would once again have enough ships to cover all important planets.

The corridors that ran underneath the shipyards were almost always straight, there was an entire grid of such corridors that connected the many shipyards, laboratories, work areas, living areas and also a number of foundries.

Finally the first marines reached the Centurion. They were greeted by the marines stationed aboard the Centurion. Non-essential personnel aboard the Centurion was already locked down to quarters and a combat watch was set. All marines were up in arms securing the flag bridge and any adjacent areas as well as vital areas such as the bridge, engineering and the ZPM room.

A minute or so later the president and his secret service detail reached the ship as well, they were greeted by the commander of the marines.

"Major, I'm special agent Price, is the ship secured?"

"Yes Ma'am, we've secured the flag bridge, the regular bridge, Engineering and the ZPM room and we are also making additional sweeps throughout the ship, all non-essential personnel has been confined to quarters for the time being, combat watch is set."

"Good, once we're all aboard you can tell the commander to take off immediately."

As the president and his detail entered the ship, the chiefs of staff and the rest of the war cabinet arrived as well. The Major walked on to greet them as well, especially the chief of staff for the marine corps. He walked up and raised his arm to salute. Before his hand could reach his head, his body fell down, leaving a red mist where his head was less than a second ago. Before the body hit the ground a gunshot rang out through the corridors, sending everyone diving for cover. The president, not knowing his life was just saved by the young major was dragged around the nearest corner and rushed to the flag bridge.

Just outside the ship, the marines had had a few seconds to scan for targets and returned fire. They kept firing to cover the VIP's which were now brought into the ship.

Once all important people and secret service escorts were inside, a sergeant swiped his keycard and the hatch closed after which the armor covered it. He then called the bridge and reported that the ship could lift off.

Almost immediately the ship started trembling as it powered up its engines. Usually, powering main engines within the shield was a career killer. It might not immediately damage Atlantis but in the long haul it would be disastrous.

As the ship reached a stable orbit it was accompanied by a squadron of 304's and numerous squadrons of fighters. Everything that approached the ship was targeted and told to leave, before getting a shot across the bow. By that time the president and the war cabinet were secured in the flag bridge.

"Andrea, what's going on?" Ryan asked his head of security once he was seated in the flag seat. The rest of the war cabinet was standing around the flag bridge or had taken a seat at some of the consoles.

"Sir, the way it is, it seems that there has been a galaxy wide assassination attempt on government leadership. The justices of the supreme court have been attacked, but their details were able to fight off the attack. The Senate and House have also been attacked, fortunately, both chambers were not in session so casualties are light. The Vice president's space hawk crashed for no apparent reason just seconds after takeoff, it crashed into the white house, which is why your wife and children were brought to the marine barracks."

"Who's behind this? The Dominion?" Ryan asked.

"We're not sure, not directly anyways. So far reports say that all attackers were humanoids. It may very well be possible that they were mercenaries, perhaps hired by the Dominion, or one of their puppets." Price said. "Sir, we've got a paper trail on nine of the attackers on the Jaffa council, Nox security picked them up without papers on their home world, they didn't have anything suspicious on them so they were deported."

"Okay, so what do we do now?"

"Sir, the TFBI and Secret Service will start an investigation. I assume we will eventually be invited to take part in an alliance investigation. I assume the Secret Service is already doing forensic research into the attackers that have been killed. I've already got a special investigator in mind to lead the investigation, assuming the Secret Service agrees of course." Director Murray said.

"Am I right if I guessed that Patrick O'Day will be the lead investigator?" Ryan asked. Ryan had heard many things about Pat O'Day, he was a troubleshooter for the Director of the TFBI, handling the most serious of cases for the government. Pat O'Day also happened to be the husband of secret agent Andrea Price, the head of his security detail.

"Yes sir. He's the best investigator we've got for a case this size."

"In that case I don't think the secret service will have any trouble with Pat taking the lead on the investigation. We've worked with him previously, with good results, especially that whole Kealty mess." Price said.

"Okay, make sure Pat has all the clearance and help he needs, nothing can stand in the way of finding out who is behind all this."

"Yes sir." Murray promised.

"So what do we do now? Do we just continue with the agenda?" Ryan asked.

"I think it's safe to say the agenda can be changed by you." The president's chief of staff said.

"I know that Arnie, but I don't have anything else right now." Ryan replied.

"_Mister president, the TFS Sol is on approach with your family aboard, they'll be here in about ten minutes."_ Price whispered in the president's ear.

Sir," the Secretary of Defense started, "You'll need to appoint a new vice chairman of the joint chiefs of staff and considering General Cartwright is in a coma you might also want to appoint a replacement for him, for the time being."

"Okay, how does that go? Seniority, weight of all medals and decorations combined?" Ryan joked.

"No sir, you point out someone, usually a chief, and congress has to approve, though in this situation, congressional approval isn't necessary on the short run." The SecDef said.

"Okay, in that case I want General O'Neill as Vice chairman, though because the chairman is gone, he will fill that position and General Conway as acting vice chairman. If General Cartwright either passes away or remains incapable of resuming his post I want General O'Neill moved up to permanent chairman and General Conway as vice chairman."

Everyone nodded in approval. A lieutenant that manned a communications console handed a small piece of paper to General O'Neill.

"Sir, it seems that the Colonial fleet is ready to evacuate."

"Okay, is Emerson ready?"

"Yes sir, the Enterprise just departed."

** Flag bridge TFS Enterprise **

**En route to Ragnar Gas cloud**

"General, we've received the last of the telemetry we need."

"What does it say?"

"Twelve battle cruisers, about a hundred other ships and approximately forty squadrons of fighters acting as a blocking force at Ragnar. There are two mother ships at the Alpha Helios system and a third might be inbound. if luck is against us we will face off against at least one mother ship and perhaps two more."

"Time is the key here anyways, we can hold the Dominion off for what? Five to ten minutes? After that the Independence and Freedom will have expanded their drone stores and we should get around to leaving as well. This ship is still relatively untested in battle. Are the squadrons ready for combat? We're gonna throw them into the heart of the fight."

"All squadrons are ready sir, they are among the best, some have even fought at the colonies."

"I know Colonel." Emerson said. "What's the ETA?"

"Three minutes, twenty five seconds."

"All commanders know what they have to do?"

"Sir, you briefed them yourself, you have trained them yourself, stop worrying and take a seat. Relax for a couple of minutes and once the battle starts you can start worrying."

An alarm sounded calling everyone to their posts. All pilots were already in their fighters, ready for takeoff. The air wing of the Enterprise CBG counted a massive 17 combat squadrons. Five of these squadrons, still equipped with F-302 squadrons, were stationed on the five escorting battle cruisers. The Enterprise carried the remaining squadrons, 2 F-302 fighter squadrons, 2 F-302B bomber squadrons, 2 Viper Mk.9 squadrons and 6 DF-310 drone squadrons. It made for a total of 320 fighters ready for deployment.

"Exiting hyperspace in twenty seconds." A lieutenant announced. Emerson got up immediately and walked over to the holo table.

Everybody tensed up, it would be the first time the Enterprise would be in real combat. As the countdown, (there always is a countdown), reached zero the Enterprise and its escorts exited hyperspace. At once all squadrons started launching. The vipers were launched the traditional way, with launch tubes, the 302's were launched with a catapult assist and the drone fighters simply detached from the hull of the ship. Before combat or once maintenance was needed there was a special mechanism to retrieve the drones or to place them in a ready position.

The drone carriers also started launching the many thousands of Tau'ri built drones they held in their cargo holds. Though a lot less powerful than the ancient drones they were based on, they were much easily produced. Eventually the argument was made that, in this case, quantity compensated for a lack of quality.

As the Enterprise approached the gas cloud the first of the ships exited the cloud. The first two were 305 class battleships, these two were still in well enough shape to fight. The rest of the ships would do their best to jump as fast as possible. The problem was the interference of the gas cloud. For the Tau'ri ships this interference wasn't much of a problem and their computers would quickly establish a hyperspace trajectory to the rally point. The Colonial ships however, needed to clear the interference of the cloud first before they could calculate a jump. The damage done to many of the battlestars made the calculations much harder since a lot of their networks were down. It would take a minute or two before they could jump away and there wasn't enough space in the shadow of the Enterprise to cover all battlestars.

"Sir, the battlestar Tjolver has jumped. The Andara is taking a pounding."

"How long till they jump?"

"Twenty, thirty seconds. Otherwise they'll be dead."

"Good." Emerson said. He looked over at a screen, it showed the positions of their fighter squadrons. "How are the Drone Fighters holding up?"

"Pretty good sir." A colonel said. He was in charge of the drone fighter project. "They are holding up about as good as the manned fighters. The nice thing about this system is that even if we lose a fighter, we don't lose its pilot nor his experience."

"Yeah, someday they'll put all us pilots out of business." Emerson said. He had been a pilot long ago, years before the stargate was first used by SG-1. "But in the end you're gonna need a person, someone who can make the hard decisions, not some heartless machine."

"I'm sorry to interrupt sir, but telemetry shows that the mother ship that was inbound for Caprica has now changed course and will arrive in less than a minute."

**Galactica CIC**

"Admiral! Shields are failing."

"How long until the jump is ready?"

"A minute, one computer was disabled."

"That's too damn long. We've got a mother ship incoming." Adama said. "How about a blind jump?"

"Sir, we might end up in the middle of a sun."

"I know the risks involved, how long until it is possible?"

"Believe it or not, the computer we just lost is required to override security protocols preventing a blind jump, we can't make one."

"Gods Damnit! Who the frack thought that up."

"Sir, Pegasus actual want to speak with you."

Adama picked up a nearby wired phone. "Galactica Actual."

"_Dad, what the frack are you still doing here? You should have jumped out of here already, your shields are failing!"_ Rear admiral Lee Adama said.

"We've got some computer trouble, we'll be out of here in a minute, whatever happens, don't wait for me, jump the second you have a fix."

"_Like hell I will."_ Jr said. The connection was cut and soon after someone reported Pegasus moving to cover Galactica's weaker side.

"Get him back on the line!" Adama ordered.

"Admiral, General Emerson wants to know what the holdup is."

"Tell him we'll be out of here in a minute or so."

"But sir, the mother ship is arriving as we speak. Enterprise is already recalling its fighters and breaking position to clear the interference."

"Admiral, I've got the Rear Admiral on the line again."

Adama, who had held the phone against his shoulder put it up against his ear again. "Son you need to get out of here now."

"_Not without you dad, you first." _Junior replied. In the background noise could be heard of multiple weapon impacts.

"No time for that, the way it sounds you're suffering damage already and…" Adama paused a second because someone announced the arrival of the mother ship. "Lee, the mother ship is here, you need to get out now you still can."

Adama waited for the reply but it didn't come for a full ten seconds. _"Sorry 'bout that dad, emh, we've got a little problem here. We just lost shields and FTL."_

"What" Adama said wide eyed, his mouth hanging open. "Lee, Lee, you need to get out of there, have your people fix the FTL, or, or, evacuate, the Tau'ri can beam you out, or you can take a raptor." Adama said in desperation, if he had thought about it he would have known neither of the options were viable in such a short time span.

"_No dad, no chance for any of that. Could you, could you just tell Gianna, Gianna and the kids that I love'em?"_

"Lee? No lee, no, get out of there now!" Adama almost screamed into the phone.

"Pegasus is taking damage to their hull."

"Lee, Get out of there, that's an order!"

"_No dad, you get out of here, we'll try to buy you some time. Dad…" _Lee suddenly stopped and the connection deteriorated, sounds of devastation could be heard over the connection, glass shattering, consoles exploding, ceilings collapsing and people dying.

"Pegasus is charging the Dominion formation, she's launching some raptors and vipers and her nukes are being primed. Admiral, it's a suicide run."

"LEE!" Adama cried out, he continued as no one dared to stop the Admiral. Even after the connection shut down and Dradis showed massive carnage being inflicted upon the Dominion battle cruisers.

"Colonel Tigh! The FTL drive is almost ready, what do you want us to do?" someone asked.

Tigh first looked over to his old friend, now just sitting on the floor, crying while still holding the wired phone in his hands.

"Colonel! You're in command right now, the FTL drive is ready, our shields are down and we are taking damage to the hull, what do we do!"

"Jump, input the coordinates for the rally point and engage the FTL drive."

Seconds later, Galactica was rocked by an immense explosion which made the lights flicker for just a moment, then the jump drive activated, bringing the ship away from the Dominion mother ship, which had just punched a hole straight through the ship.

**Flag bridge, TFS Enterprise**

"All ships have jumped away, all fighters have been recovered and we're ready for hyperdrive." Someone announced.

"What just happened to Galactica!" Emersone demanded to know.

"Sensors say that Galactica took a massive hit but was able to jump away."

"Okay, we'll get the hell out of here, once we get back to the rally point we'll determine what exactly happened."

* * *

**that's it fir now, if you can, leave a Review**


	15. Chapter 14

**the next chapter, thanks to Rudy Pena and Just-a-Crazy-man fir the beta. **

**enjoy and R&R  
**

**December 12**

**2340 hours**

A car pulled up to the house, it didn't park in the driveway but to the side of the street. Normally the car would look out of place, but in this residence it wasn't so much, nearly all of houses had at least one dark green or camouflaged car in front of it, it was a military base's residential neighborhood. The house itself was quite large, in fact, most houses were on the large side.

Three people stepped out of the car. Two were military while the third wore some kind of robe and held a thick book in his hands. One of the military was male, quite tall at almost 6 feet and shortened black hair. The woman was quite small and had long blonde hair. The male had an insignia on his shoulders indicating he was a Fleet Admiral, the woman had insignia that indicated she was a battlestar Commander. The two military put on their caps and adjusted their clothes until they were perfect, by the book.

Once everyone was ready they put up a grim face, what they were about to do was something no one ever wanted to do, it was harder than combat, harder than killing another. They walked up to the front door and the woman, who was in front knocked.

They waited a minute or so, it was late after all, eventually a woman opened, she was a bit longer than the commander but had the same long blonde hair.

"Kara, what are you doing here?" the woman asked.

"Misses… Gianna, the…" Kara stumbled; she couldn't speak the words herself.

"Misses Adama, the Battlestar Pegasus was lost in battle. Your husband, Rear Admiral Leeland Joseph Adama was killed in action while commanding the Battlestar Pegasus. You have my personal condolences and the condolences of the Colonial Fleet and Government." The man finished.

At that Gianna collapsed. She was caught just in time by Commander Thrace and Admiral Nagala. The four of them all went inside, where after a few minutes 'aunt' Kara would wake up the kids so that they could be told the bad news.

**Flag bridge, Enterprise**

**En-route to Alpha Centauri**

"General we have two possibilities for what happened with the Galactica." A major said. The major was the second in command in engineering and was therefore put in command of a task force dedicated to finding out what had happened to Galactica in those confusing seconds before her jump.

"Tell me." Emerson said as he stood up.

"What we can all agree on is that Galactica's jump drives did activate and that Galactica did leave her position, it was no misjump. And considering it didn't turn up at the rally point there are only two options, one of which you sort of experience with the Odyssey yourself sir."

"The Ori galaxy?" Emerson asked. Referring to the time the Odyssey's hyperdrive engines got a sudden power boost and brought the ship all the way into the Ori galaxy.

"Yes sir, the preferable option is that Galactica made the jump, but due to the hit it sustained either ended up short of the rally point, or overshot the rally point. Considering the way a jump drive works we are leaning to overshooting the rally point, we do know that it hasn't passed Earth, Atlantis' sensors would have detected such a thing. So if this is the case the Galactica is somewhere between the rally point, and Earth."

"And the other option?"

"Galactica was destroyed by the stresses of the FTL jump, and is now scattered across possibly hundreds of light years, in such tiny pieces so that we wouldn't be able to detect them."

"I'm not yet ready to assume that. I'll recommend to start a search for Galactica between the rally point and Earth as soon as we're at Alpha Centauri."

"Yes sir." The Major said before he started to walk away.

"General, we just got a message from the Colonial president; she wants to know what happened to Galactica." Some lieutenant reported.

"Major" Emerson called after the major. "When can I have a report from you about Galactica?"

"I've got a preliminary one ready right now, we'll need to put in some more data, run some more test to be completely sure and conclusive."

"Alright. Thank you major." He turned to the lieutenant. "Once the major has completed his report I want you to forward it to the Colonial government and make a note telling them I will recommend a search for Galactica once we're out of hyperspace."

**CIC**

As he came by he was overwhelmed by the noise around him, alarms of all kinds were blaring that there was something wrong. Only the emergency lighting was on and was aided by some fires and sparking wiring. He was slumbered down against the plot table, one of the wired phones still in his hands. Then it all came back to him, the battle, Galactica, Pegasus, Lee! The tears started flowing again as he shook his head. _"Lee, no"_ he mumbled. Around him people were walking around trying to get some order from chaos.

"_Admiral, Sir, are you okay?"_ someone asked. He couldn't identify the person, but then again, he had a killer headache and he was still in a daze. _"Sir, we need you, the Colonel is unconscious and we've got a fair amount of casualties in the command staff."_

"Ishay?" the Admiral asked.

"Yes sir, that's me, how are you feeling?" she asked him as she put a bandage on a deep cut.

"Bad" Adama responded, "Where is Cottle?"

"He's in the infirmary, we've got hundreds of wounded sir. "

"What happened?"

"Well I'm no expert but from what I heard so far we've got a hole straight through the ship, between the forward and aft landing bay struts. In fact, the bays may be the only thing holding both ends together sir. But that's just what I heard Chief Tyrol yell to his men, so it might just be motivational." Ishay said as she continued to check the Admiral for wounds. Once she was satisfied there were no more that those she had already treated she helped him get up.

"Go on Ishay." He said as he saw the medic linger around. She immediately went for the next person in need.

"SITREP!" Adama ordered to no one in particular as he leaned against the center console.

"Sir, Navigation and especially DRADIS are a mess. We are most likely not at the rally point." D said. D was the nickname for Petty officer Dualla.

"Could you be a bit more precise?"

"Sorry sir, that's all I've got and it makes sense. If we'd be at the rally point we would have received help and if we were still at the Colonies we'd be dead or boarded by the Dominion."

"Okay, try to get through to the hanger bay and get a Raptor airborne, we need to know where we are."

"What else?"

"Sir," a Corporal came up to him with numerous papers, "According to the Chief we've got a massive hole straight through the ship. The forward sections are currently running on battery power but the Chief is working on some cables through the hanger bays to reestablish generator power to the forward sections. Our Hyperdrive is toast, it's completely gone and the FTL is giving an error, even though it's supposed to work just fine."

"Alright, thanks Jaffee. I want all department heads to submit a status report ASAP and I want a meeting in eight hours."

**Loutoufio, 120 kilometers north west of Hypathia, Colony of Tauron**

**HQ company, 1****st**** brigade combat team **_**"Warrior"**_**, 10****th**** Tau'ri Federation Mountain division**

**December 13, 2024**

Colonel Ellie Becker, CO of the 1st brigade combat team of the 10th mountain division walked into the CP. She had just returned from the lines to have a talk with one of her battalion commanders. The 10th mountain was the only regular army division assigned to the 14th Army, which was made up completely of National Guard units. It was in an afterthought that the 10th was assigned to Tauron, one of the most mountainous planets in the colonies. The first BCT was tasked with defending one of the few valleys that went all the way up to the Tauron capital. To make things worse, a hundred clicks or so further to the north, a large Colonial Fleet space port had just fallen to the Dominion. Barely half of the forty two thousand defenders had made it back alive and for all intents and purposes the Dominion were coming straight for them, now finally having a proper space port.

Through the valley a river and a road led from the space port, to the Tauron capital. The 1st btn of the 87th infantry regiment was located on one side while the 2nd btn of the 22nd infantry regiment was positioned on the other side of the river. Their left flank was covered by the third BCT from the 10th mountain while the seconds BCT covered her right flank. Both these BCT's were defending mountainous terrain.

The one very big advantage they all had was that even before the first cylon war, when Tauron was a colony being exploited by its neighbors, the space port was also in use, then by the exploiting militaries. The Tauron Ha'la'tha resistance had frequently staged attacks on convoys passing through the valley and also had numerous hide outs and tunnels carved into the mountains. The Herac militias, government supported death squads, had killed thousands in the area in response to every attack made. The population of Loutoufio, once consisting of hundreds of thousands of citizens, had been reduced to roughly eighty thousands in the last hundred years before the first Cylon war.

Each BCT within the 10th mountain had one scout cavalry battalion assigned, these units were usually the eyes of the BCT but in this case, since warfare would be quite static, their Humvees were designated as fire support. The Colonel could also count on the support of a number of Ha'la'tha fighters, these served as guides and scouts for the Tau'ri troops. They had helped set up numerous traps and a bunch of mine fields, even the river, which divided the BCT wouldn't be safe for the Dominion.

In the mountains and hills that bordered BCT 1, the other brigades had much help from Tok'ra tunneling crystals which allowed them to expand the tunnel network already in place, and make room for gun emplacements and dug in bunkers. The troops of BCT 1 did not have such luxury, they had to dig their own trenches and reinforce them with sand bags, they did have a number of hard points that were reinforced with concrete and their sleeping quarters were also made more secure in this way. About two to three hundred meters behind the main line of resistance another line had been constructed, and another three hundred meters behind that again another line. A retreat would be carried out by Humvees because it would be foolish to make such a retreat on foot, especially when their own lines had been broken.

"Colonel, how is first battalion doing?" the S3 (Operations) captain asked.

"They're looking pretty solid, they just had a little issue with one of their evac routes near that hill, apparently it is quite steep and the Humvee might not make it. I've told them that I'd see if I could get the engineers back with a dozer or two to fix it but I'm not sure of we have the time for it." The Colonel explained while she pointed out the problems on the map in front of them. "Do we have time for it?"

"Not likely sir," the S2 (Intelligence) started, "We have UAV visuals on their scout units and they'll be here in a couple of hours. It will take at least that long to get the divisional engineers to send the dozers up to our position."

"What's the size of that scout force?"

"About forty to fifty, we've got a downlink from the UAV here, sir." S2 said as he stood next to the console which indeed showed a feed from the UAV, centered on the advancing Dominion scout force. The brigade had a number of UAV drones assigned to them from the Division's air scout battalion, namely eight MQ-16 Dark Stars.

"How 'bout we take those fuckers down with snipers only, no mines, let's keep that a surprise until they can make a real dent."

"Yes sir, I'll pass the word on down." S6 (communications) said.

"Okay, do we have some Intel on the Dominion's main force?"

"It's about three hours behind the scout force, it's quite large actually, early count is at 5-8 thousand."

"We may need some arty for that, how're we doing on that front?"

"We received an additional battery from Earth last night, its currently digging in, right now we've got an overly large artillery battalion counting seven batteries, two are made up of Gypsy Wagons (M270 MLRS), both under your personal command, four are towed 155 mil batteries and we have one SAM battery, just in case the Dominion get smart and get something airborne. I'm just concerned about their supply situation, especially the Gypsy Wagons, they may be firing more than we can supply them with." S3 said.

"That won't be a problem, division and all the way up to Tauron Command has stockpiled arty rounds for ages; we've got three supply trains waiting about fifty clicks back, ready to supply the division." The S4 (Logistics) said. "That's all in addition to our own supplies of course, which totals about a week's worth of rounds waiting in various depots and firing positions."

"That's good. I want some TOT solutions ready, just in case things get to hairy, okay, that's all, carry on."

"Yes sir." all her officers replied. Afterwards she went out of the tent again and indulged one of her sins by lighting one up.

**CIC, Galactica**

Adama and his senior officers were standing around the plot table. It was the only area even remotely suitable for the meeting they were having. The flag bridge was still inaccessible, the Admiral's private quarters were suffering from a lack of oxygen, as were more areas on the ship for that matter. Around the table were his XO who had finally regained consciousness. The Chief was there, the head engineer was there, the tactical officer, as well as the CAG.

"Gentlemen, how's she doing?"

"You mean aside from the big hole in the ship?" the CAG asked.

"Yes."

"Sir, we've lost shields, half our weapons, we're still not getting enough power through to the forward sections to make all systems work, so far we've been able to power about half our forwards weaponry, short range dradis and short range communications." The head engineering reported. "What may even be worse is that our FTL drive is not inoperable, but just won't work, the same goes for the FTL drives on our raptors, we think there may be an occurrence in this region preventing a jump. Our hyper drive is gone, as are our long range communications and scanning capabilities."

"How's sub light?" Adama asked.

"We're at thirty percent right now, we think we can get it up to eighty within 24 hours." The head engineer said. "Sir, we were quite lucky if I might ad. Twenty years ago we wouldn't have survived a hit at that exact place. These days the Tylium used for our fighters and raptors is stored in the bay fuel depots, instead of the central fuel depot, which was vaporized by the blast."

"Lucky us." The XO replied with his tone dripping in sarcasm.

"Chief, how long until she's back in fighting shape?"

"Sir, in my opinion it's better to build a completely new battlestar from scratch, it'll safe time, money and resources."

"Humor me Chief."

"Without a dry-dock, say two to six years. Scorpia shipyard, a year, nine months if we're lucky and the gods are with us. Tau'ri and Asgard yards would have it repaired in three to six months I think. Most of the work would be in the structural frame, basically what's happened is that a piece of her spine was taken out, not broken, just removed, it's a wonder she survived the jump. Right now the hanger pods are keeping the ship together, and they weren't designed for that."

"Okay, what's the tactical situation?"

"We've lost a lot of weaponry, our dorsal turrets are gone, numerous other gun emplacements were also destroyed by the dominion in the time our shields were down. Speaking about the shields, nine out of fourteen shield emitters are gone beyond repairs and all spares were lost due to damage. Most of our firepower would be with our air wing." The tactical officer said.

"I wouldn't be so sure about that." The Cag started. We've got about ninety airworthy vipers, about twenty raptors and a couple of 302's that made an emergency landing, we've been able to patch them up sufficiently enough to make 'em fly." He said with a nod to the chief. "The problem is power and pilots, we've lost of bunch of the latter and the former is not yet restored to the launch tubes. Another problem is landing, those four defense platforms we stuffed in the bays are really taking up space and make trying to land there look like going through the eye of the needle while on a rollercoaster ride."

"Did you launch the raptor I requested?"

"Yes sir, we think we're about 25 light-years away from Alpha Centauri, that's spitting distance considering the distance between the colonies and Earth, it also lies between Earth and the Alpha site, meaning we're within Earth's Alpha Defense Line. We have also found two planets sharing an orbit around a sun, looks a bit like Caprica and Geminon actually, we have detected space flight from one planet to the other, though it does not look like sustainable space flight. Our raptor approached the system and received numerous radar signals, we have not been able to properly decipher them but our people are working on it. Beyond that our tactical situation seems doable, no immediate threats except for those space faring planets, or at least one of them."

"What do you mean by that?"

"Well, it seems that beside the space travel there also seem to be some multi stage rockets going to the less advanced planet. We don't know what these rockets are carrying, though we haven't detected any nuclear payloads, so far we don't know if these missiles are military or civilian."

"Sir," Corporal Jaffee said as he handed him a paper, "Comms wanted me to give you this."

"Thank you corporal." Adama said as he read the paper. "Well, I think we just got ourselves involved in an interplanetary war." Adama said. "Both sides are already asking for help in a war of aggression, both claim the other has started it. One side, the advanced side almost demand that we either help or leave, the other side is asking for our help, either in fighting, or in diplomacy."

"Do we want to get involved in a war right now?" Tigh asked.

"As it is we might not be able to get out of this system, we can't go out and fight a war." The Tactical officer argued.

"Which might be exactly why we need to cozy up to at least one of the two parties, if we're going to be stuck here we're gonna need a place to stay, to get food and water and other supplies." Adama said.

"The alliance charter also demands that we help those in need of help or who request help." The CAG said.

"Exactly, I'm not planning on getting ourselves into a war but if we can help end one I'll sure as hell do my best." Adama said.

"So what do you want to do?" Tigh asked.

"Let's put Galactica in between both planets, as neutral as possible ground. Also send a message to both parties, telling them we'll be launching craft on a peaceful mission, and that we'll contact both sides shortly, so we can go find out who, if any, is the right party and who is the aggressor. Let them know that any aggression against us will be responded to in kind."

"Yes Sir." All said.

"CAG, Launch four Raptors, each escorted by two Vipers, two for DRADIS duty, two to get close to both planets and act as a sorts of ambassador."

"And do what, just cruise out there, wave and smile for the pictures?" Tigh asked.

"That'd be a start, perhaps one of our raptors can cautiously approach one of those space ships, see if they have a crew and perhaps make contact with them."

**BCT Warrior CP, Loutoufio**

The command post of BCT warrior was located in one of the prefab tents that were set up at the base camp. It was located about a kilometer outside the city of Loutoufio. The camp also housed several ammunition depots, a field hospital and helicopter and VTOL facilities. Though the brigade didn't have its own aviation part, the Division did have an entire aviation brigade. This brigade still used some of the old US helicopters like the Apache, Cobra, Chinook and Blackhawk, it also had a small number of Space Hawks, mostly for medevacs and VIP transport. More important in this fight would be the artillery, helicopters were great for a maneuver campaign because they were fast which allowed them to travel great distances, while artillery was always slow and lagged behind the mechanized and armored advance, forcing them to either slow down to allow the artillery to catch up, or advance without artillery cover.

Just a couple of hours before the command staff had witnessed the deaths of 48 Dominion scouts at the hands of the brigade's sniper section. The scouts had been allowed to approach the first defense line to within a hundred meters before they had been taken down with well-placed shots at the upper body or head. The bodies of the dominion had been removed so as not to give away any clues to the following Dominion, not to hide the stench dead bodies always carrier with them, there would be plenty dead Dominion by sun down and all troops had been issued experimental nose protection which would filter out any 'unpleasant' smells. These nose plugs so to say weren't the only new gadgets for the ground forces, their com gears were also overhauled, now the sound of combat was largely reduced to background noise, allowing for normal communications, even during heavy combat. Another such gadget were a pair of shades, from a distance they weren't much different from what one would encounter at the beach on a sunny day, but these also worked at night, giving proper night vision to the wearer, it also incorporated a limited HUD, allowing the unit leader to assign objectives which would be pointed out with an arrow. These sunglasses could also be linked to the user's weapon, for example the aim could be projected on the HUD allowing the wearer to fire the weapon without directly looking at the target.

For the soldiers at the CP it didn't really matter, they were a few kilometers behind the lines and they were more interested in the UAV feed, which showed the first wave of Dominion forces approaching. They weren't really smart about advancing, they didn't have an eye for the defense the terrain could give them, not that there was much to start with, the engineers had removed the best places of cover to create better fields of fire.

"They don't look real good huh? I'd bet ten bucks they're still green." Becker said to her 2IC.

"I take that bet sir." the 2IC replied.

"Deal," Becker said before she turned to the UAV operator, "Lieutenant zoom in on that one, right there."

The camera zoomed in until the face of the Dominion filled the screen. The face had numerous old cuts and bruises, when the lieutenant zoomed out a bit his uniform was also dirty and had numerous cuts in it.

"Hah, see, not so green, these fuckers have seen some combat before."

"You sure? Lieutenant, find another one."

The Lieutenant complied and soon enough another Dominion was under surveillance, his face was clean, as was his uniform.

"How 'bout that? That looks pretty green right now." Becker said.

"Okay, two out of three, Lieutenant, another one." The 2IC said.

Yet again another face was selected, this one too was clean, no wounds, nothing at all.

"Are you finally going to admit these are newbies? Or do you want to go to three out of five?"

"Nah, that's okay." The 2IC said as he gave the ten buck to his CO.

"Sir, Kiska six is requesting permission to engage the enemy once they are at four hundred meters." A lieutenant that monitored the radios announced.

Becker got to the radio and took it from the lieutenant. "Kiska six, this is Warrior six, do you copy?"

"_Warrior six, this is Kiska six, Copy."_

"Major, I want you to hold fire until after the TOT barrage, this will land at 3-5-0 meters, once done, fire at will."

"_Copy Warrior six, Kiska six out."_

Becker put the radio down and walked over to watch the UAV feed. "How far out?"

"Five hundred meter, give or take."

"Tell the artillery to get ready, tell the boys and girls in the trenches to keep their heads down, we're gonna slug some rounds in danger close."

**CP 1****st**** Battalion, **_**'Kiska'**_

"Sir, All units have copied the warning, they are ready to fire and are keeping their heads down in anticipation of the artillery barrage." A lieutenant reported.

"Good. I'm gonna go see this fire show from the front row." Major Vukovic replied. This just meant he went to the forward side of the bunker where two squads were sitting out the barrage, one squad would deploy after the bombardment and fight from the trenches while the other squad would operate some of the heavy weaponry placed inside, such as two M2 .50 bmg's, a flamethrower to fry any Dominion that got close, the minefields in their sector and, not unimportant, a laser designator for artillery strikes. "This roof can stand a direct impact right?"

"I'd rather not find out sir." a Captain responded.

"Shit." Vukovic said as he grabbed his helmet and put it on. As he grabbed his rifle to sling it over his shoulder the entire bunker started shaking and seconds later the sound of far off thunder reached them. "Heads up." He said with a smile as he stepped into the forward part of the bunker.

Not much later the artillery landed, half the 155 rounds were airburst, the other half were ground burst, the rockets from the M270's carried advanced GPS guided cluster munitions which detonated on impact. The ground trembled as the artillery barrage continued actually throwing people to the floor. After about forty seconds the barrage ended, the M270's had expended their load and the artillery had managed to fire off 7-8 rounds, not because of their rate of fire, but because of the different trajectories a round could take to the same destination, some would take longer than others and if timed well, several rounds could arrive within a few seconds of each other, while having been fired by the same piece of artillery.

Once the dust settled Vukovic had a look outside at the remains of the Dominion advance. Thousands of Dominion had just died in less than a minute and the artillery seemed very effective, for the first six to seven hundred meters he couldn't find any Dominion standing and those that were still alive were grunting in pain from all of the wounds they had suffered. What was even better was that the remaining Dominion were retreating, the soldiers of first battalion didn't fire a single shot.

**Tau'ri war cabinet meeting**

**Situation room, Atlantis**

**December 18**

"So that concludes agriculture for this meeting, General O'Neill, you had something you wanted to show me from Tauron?" Ryan said.

"Yes sir. as you know we have an entire army stationed on Tauron, a couple of days ago, the thirteenth, the Dominion launched their first assault on our units located in the northern sector, this is UAV cover from a strike by units of the 10th mountain division." O'Neill said as a hologram appeared and started streaming the UAV feed. It showed the Dominion forces advancing for a minute or so and then some objects passed on front of the camera very fast. Seconds later the barrage struck the Dominion. For a minute or so nothing was visible except for explosions and dirt flying through the air. Once the barrage was done and things settled down the UAV zoomed in a bit to show what had exactly happened.

"Wow." The secretary of state managed.

"Jesus Christ, how many?" Ryan asked.

"Originally they counted about seven thousand, six were killed immediately or died of wounds, the rest retreated, our troops didn't have to fire a shot."

"That's very impressive general. Let me guess, the army wants more cannons?" Ryan guessed as he looked at the General of the Army.

"That would be great, but they especially want more ammunition, the last five days the artillery in the twelve colonies have burned through about ten percent of their reserves, normally, that would be enough for about fourteen days, not five. Right now, we have enough rounds in reserve throughout various depots, but once we get involved in more battles and start expanding more ammunition we will most likely not have enough rounds to keep all our units supplied."

"So order more from their manufacturers." Ryan said. "I'm sure we can find some funds for it."

"Money isn't really the problem, the problem is that the manufacturers have reached their max, especially now that half or our artillery manufacturers have switched to making rounds for the space forces, as well as missiles and drones. It'll take six to nine months before they can increase their capacity." The general of the Army said.

"And we may deplete our reserves before that?"

"Yes, current use, perhaps, if we limit the use of rounds in training we will most likely make it, but training will suffer."

"What are our alternatives?"

"We could ration the use of rounds, or pump additional funds to speed up the acquisition of production capacity." The chief of the Marine Corps suggested.

"More money isn't the problem, it just takes that long to produce all the equipment necessary for production. Rationing will get people killed, that artillery is one of the best ways of killing Dominion foot soldiers, and it'll keep our own safe."

"It's war, soldiers are dying every day." The secretary of treasury said.

"And we owe it to those soldiers to do the best we can to give them the best protection, the best equipment and the best chance." Ryan said.

"Sir, there might be another option." The secretary of state said. "Since the loss of so many battlestars, the colonials have a massive surplus of munitions production. I'm not sure about the technicalities, but we might be able to outsource production, at least for a while, to Colonial manufacturers, either on the colonies, or their refugee planets."

"And this would also give us a good reason to pump a couple billion Terra into the Colonial economy." Ryan said. Terra had only recently become the only currency used by the Tau'ri federation, the various other currencies such as the Dollar, Euro, Yen and Pound were too difficult to just stop using overnight, millions of businesses would have had to make the switch instantly. In order to prevent discussion about a name the term Terra was chosen, some might still continue to call it the Dollar, or Pound or anything else, but officially, and to the other galactic powers, the official currency the Tau'ri Federation paid its bills with, was the Terra.

"Yes sir." the secretary of treasury said. "In fact, my analysts think that the Colonials are running out of hard cash to spend on foreign weaponry. They want to keep it quiet so as not to alarm the stock market."

"Are they going to be able to make their payments for the foreseeable future?"

"Yes, I think so, the Colonials know we'll help them if need be, the Nox aren't really interested in money so won't complain if they have to wait for their cash and the Jaffa know jack shit about finance, most they know is that it costs money to be in debt to others and that they are the biggest exporter of raw materials."

"Good. Any other comments on this issue?" Ryan asked. "No? In that case, the military is authorized to start a procurement procedure to procure additional artillery stocks from the Colonial military industry." Ryan said as a matter of fact.

"Alright, next order of business, Destiny Command. How far along is General Young with the preparations for the transfer of a drone ship to the Dominion rear area?" Ryan asked as he looked over to General O'Neill, now the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. General Cartwright and Admiral Stanhope were both involved in the terrorist attacks on the Jaffa senate, Admiral Stanhope had passed away and General Cartwright was in a short coma, once he regained consciousness, it was clear that he would not be able to return to active duty.

"Sir, two days ago a team operating from a 304 successfully managed to board and capture one of the drone command ships. These are the control ships of their race, these build new fighters and serve as a mother ship to them. As we speak a team from destiny is reprogramming the AI to make it target Dominion only, and teach it how to best attack the Dominion. As it is the first thing that ship would do is construct a second command ship before it will set out and attack the nearest Dominion supply station. For the first few years their task will be to raid their supply lines and gather strength before going over to exterminating every Dominion they come across."

"What kind of safeties will they program into the drones? To make sure they won't turn on us?" Ryan asked.

"As far as I know they are programmed to attack the Dominion only, though there is an exception, namely those races who are overly aggressive against them. Races known to us to be friendly to us are programmed as to never be attacked. In addition there is also a remote self-destruct command that can be given from our ships, if need be."

"How long will it take before we notice the effects of this?" the secretary of state asked.

"We may never really notice, this is a long shot, we hope that it will disrupt the Dominion supply lines and force them to send ships to meet this new threat, ships that might otherwise be sent against us. But may also be that the Dominion have enough ships around to face the drones without weakening the attacks on us, or they destroy the drones before they can multiply and become a threat."

"General, in case the drones are successful and the Dominion's lines are disrupted, how will we proceed in the long run, assuming we defeat the Dominion, do we leave them be? Or do we destroy them?" the Treasury secretary asked.

"As it is now we'll have a long way to go before the drones will be any threat to us. I would like to remind you of the safety measures we have encoded into them. Another safety is distance, let me demonstrate." O'Neill said. He pushed a few buttons and an overview of Earth was shown.

"Earth, I think we're all familiar with it." O'Neill said.

Another picture appeared, replacing the one of Earth. "The Solar system, Earth, the sun, the other planets and the Kuiper's Belt, not much new I think."

The picture again disappeared and made way for another one. "The Solar interstellar neighborhood, our immediate neighbors, Alpha Centauri, a major fleet base, Epsilon Eridani and Tau Ceti, both major training grounds for the marines and army and of course 51 Pegasi, the Beverly Hills of the stars." O'Neill said as he pointed out some of the planets.

The picture again changed. "The Milky way galaxy, I think we're quite familiar with this one." O'Neill said as numerous planets and fleets were indicated, also a line indicating the front lines.

It again changed, it actually zoomed out. "The Local Galactic group. The Milky Way and Andromeda galaxies, these two are the largest galaxies, Pegasus here, Aquarius not far away, and here, officially NGC 3190, but better known as the Asgard Galaxy."

It zoomed out again. "The Virgo Supercluster, the Local Galactic group is part of it, it's centered around the Virgo Galactic group. Also here is NGC 2997 the Ori galaxy is located there. For all we know most of the Supercluster located to the right of the Local group is under Dominion control."

The picture zoomed out again. "And last, the Local Super clusters. We now know that the Dominion are from the Canes Major Void, a region with very few galaxies, which might also be the reason that the Dominion survived so long. In addition to the Virgo Super cluster, the Hydra, Coma and Perseus-Pisces super clusters also seem to be under the control of the Dominion. It's the Hydra super cluster where we will send the Drone ship, and as you can see, it is FAR away."

"I see." The Treasury secretary said. "Then how is it possible that the Dominion can send troops from that far and make an impact so soon? They only have hyper drives right?"

"Isn't that for the same reason as why we use predetermined hyperspace lanes for trade and regular ship movements?" the secretary of state asked.

"Yes sir. Every planet, every asteroid, nearly everything in space can influence a hyperspace track. This is why our ships are relatively slow in hyperspace, they need to maneuver around every such disturbance. To do this they need to slow down, otherwise they would overshoot and perhaps slam into something unwanted. A hyperspace lane, as the secretary of state called them are simply plotted tracks through hyperspace where we know are the least amount of disturbances and our ships can attain the highest speed possible. For example between the Pegasus and Milky way galaxy there are much less objects and our speed is usually doubled. Imagine the same thing between two super clusters, there is barely anything there and speed in hyperspace could increase somewhere between ten and a hundred times."

"That much?"

"Yes sir, it's something we keep telling people but no one really seems to care about it." The chief of staff for the Space Forces said.

"Back on topic, how long before the drone ship will be launched?" Ryan asked, getting the discussion back on topic.

"It'll take about seventy two hours. We've got a jump gate in place, the coordinates are all ready, it's just the reprograming." O'Neill said.

"Okay." Ryan said. He waited a bit but no one came up with anything else. "Well, in that case General, tell General Young: good luck." Ryan said. He looked at the agenda. "That also concludes the scheduled part of the meeting, who has something else to discuss?" there were also a number of small things that were not to important, but were necessary to be brought to the attention of the leadership.

"I've got one little thing." O'Neill said. "A while ago I reported that we had retrieved the body of Doctor Weir and downloaded her consciousness into a new body. So far the tests and experiments we've done are reporting positive results. To this point we have had no security problems related to the nanites so I dare say the project is going as hoped."

"Good to know, keep me updated."

"What else?"

**CP, BCT Warrior, Loutoufio**

**December 25, 2024**

"Sir, Alpha company, 2nd battalion just lost two because of a Dominion plasma grenade, another four injured." The S1 officer reported.

Colonel Becker closed her eyes for a second, remembering the death her brigade had already sustained. "That makes it what? 28?"

"Yes sir, 28 dead, 47 light injured, they are either at the hospital recuperating or already back on the line, and 12 seriously wounded that had to be sent back home."

"How about reinforcements?" Becker asked.

"Filtering through in two to three days." The personnel officer replied.

"Okay. What's the status of our artillery supply?"

"About ninety percent of the convoys going this way are hauling rounds for the artillery. We've had to take trucks from the Colonial army to help us out on this." The supply officer said.

"And the special request I made last week?" she asked.

"I've been tracking it with a UAV, it should be here in about ten minutes. May I ask what it is about sir? all you've told me is to pick up a certain delivery and get it here ASAP."

"You'll find out soon enough." She replied. She turned back to the map and looked it over. "So what are…"

She was interrupted as two low flying aircraft passed over. "What the fuck is that!" she yelled as the noise stayed overhead.

"It seems to be a pair of Raptors sir!" a radar officer reported.

"No shit! I can hear that as well. What the fuck are they doing overhead?" she yelled. She could hear that the raptors were hovering nearby. The winds that were produced by the raptors blew open the door to the CP and Colonel Becker got a good look at the two raptors, of which one was actually landing. The raptor wasn't the standard version in use with the Colonial fleet or army, nor was it one of the black special forces raptors. Instead it was pained in a white and blue scheme and at several areas it showed a phoenix, the official seal of the Colonies, this was Colonial One, the president's raptor.

"Shit" her XO said as he followed her gaze.

"Took the words right out of my mouth." She replied.

As the first raptor landed and powered down the other moved off and the noise subsided.

"Alright people, we seem to be getting some high value visitors, I want everyone to put their friendly faces on and keep the language clean." Becker said to everyone in the CP. Once she was sure everyone knew what she meant she walked out the tent to greet the visitors.

Just as she got out of the tent the hatch started opening and first she saw were four Colonial Secret Service agents with their small sub-machine-guns in their hands. She decided to stay at a respectable distance. The four agents were the first out. They scanned the area and one of them walked up to Becker.

"Is the area secure?" He asked.

"The front line's a couple of click that away." She said as she pointed in the right direction. "We haven't seen any Dominion pass it alive though, if that's what you're worried about."

It wasn't exactly the answer he expected but the agent understood the message, 'this is a warzone, there are always risk'. Without saying a thing he walked back to the raptor and climbed up on the short wing. He talked a bit with someone she couldn't see and eventually he came out again, followed by the President of the Twelve Colonies.

As the president stepped of the wing, Becker, as well as two nearby soldiers standing guard gave a sharp salute. The president didn't wear one of her usual suits that she wore when she was on tv, but was wearing something informal and had a jacket that had once belonged to one certain admiral in the Colonial Fleet.

The president quickly returned the salute, although not really to regulation, but good enough for a civilian, and walked up to Colonel Becker.

"Colonel." She said, clearly fishing for a name and rank, unsure if colonial and Tau'ri ranks were the same.

"Colonel Becker, Commanding officer, Infantry Brigade Combat Team 'Warrior', 1st brigade, 10th Tau'ri Federation Mountain Division, Ma'am."

"Quite a mouth full, would you mind if I'd call you Colonel Becker?" she asked.

"Of course not Ma'am."

"By the look of surprise on your face I guess someone forgot to tell you I was coming?"

"Yes ma'am, I assume someone dropped the ball on that one."

"Well, I hope you won't mind me being here."

"Of course not madam president, you are always welcome with BCT Warrior." Becker said. "Ma'am, if you don't mind me asking, why are you here today?" she asked, vaguely suspecting the answer.

"Well, yesterday I attended a private traditional Christmas eve dinner party by president Ryan. Afterwards I found out just how important Christmas has always been for the Tau'ri and that it wasn't uncommon for dignitaries to visit frontline troops. I thought it would be nice to show my appreciation to you all for fighting here, for helping us in this war, even on such a respected holiday by visiting you guys and girls on the frontline."

"Well, thank you madam president. But this isn't the frontline, the real one is out there." Becker said pointing in the direction of smoke and distant explosions.

"It is to the civilians and us politicians. But if you think it's possible, I'd like to visit your soldiers in the trenches." Roslin said.

"As a matter of fact, I've got a surprise incoming." Becker said as she looked over at a number of trucks just arriving at the camp. "How 'bout you come help me deliver them? Ma'am" she hastily added.

The president looked over at one of the nearby secret service agents who, after a brief moment nodded, though didn't look particularly happy about it.

"I think we're gonna need to give you some extra protection, can't be too safe." Becker said. The secret service agent looked relieved and sent one of the other agents back to the raptor. The agent returned with a bag full of stuff and the president was escorted to a tent to change into something safer. In the meantime, Becker had a couple of soldiers load up some Humvees with the surprises and had a platoon from the reserves mount up to provide protection. When the president returned she looked ready for the frontline except for one thing. Becker went back into the CP to get the last thing needed.

"Ma'am, I think you'll need these." Becker said as she pulled the object out of the casing.

"Ah, that's, ehm, what is it?" Roslin asked.

"It'll block out the bad smells of the decaying Dominion dead." Becker said.

"I see." She said as she looked at them. She tried to put them in her nose, not knowing how to use it. Becker showed her herself.

Eventually they entered a Humvee and set off for one of the bunkers housing a platoon from the 2nd battalion.

A few minutes later they had reached the bunker and as the engines were shut off they could hear the soldiers sing.

"Colonel, what are they singing?"

"Christmas carols Ma'am, I believe this particular one to be 'Joy to the World'." Becker replied.

"It sounds very nice."

"Two corporals from this platoon are part of the Division's choir. So the singing from this platoon is probably above average."

"I see, how about we go give these men and women their presents?" Roslin asked.

Becker agreed and went to the back of the Humvee to grab a couple of boxes, two of the escorting soldiers were brought in and grabbed some boxes as well, surprisingly, Roslin also picked up two boxes. Just as they started to go Becker stopped, put the boxes up on the hood of the humvee and grabbed a bag. She pulled out a number of Christmas hats and put one on herself, and, after receiving permission put one over the helmet of the president.

As they neared the guards Becker ordered them to remain quiet and follow them inside. When she pushed the outer door open she was greeted by a sight of friendship and Christmas far away from home. It took a few seconds before anyone noticed that it wasn't a guard but indeed the Colonel. Before they could move however, Becker ordered them to remain seated and quiet down.

"Hi there, Santa's a bit busy with all those kids back home but he asked one of his friends to come help me deliver his presents for you." She announced. Around that time Roslin had put the boxes down and was visible to the soldiers. As one they all stood up, disregarding Beckers previous orders.

"I thought someone said you should remain seated." Roslin said.

They all relaxed their stance and eventually they all took a seat again. "So I guess that you are all wondering what it brought." Becker said. "Well, it isn't really Christmas until you've got a proper Christmas meal. So I've had some old friends of mine ship some useful stuff this way. I'm sure you'll find something useful for all this stuff." Becker said. Some other soldiers brought in some more boxes. After a few minutes the president and the Colonel took a look at the carnage that had been inflicted on the Dominion attackers. Meanwhile the soldiers unpacked the boxes and started to get acquainted with the booze.

Once the Colonel and President returned some of the soldiers were already working in the small kitchen while others were once again singing Christmas carols while having a beer. They stuck around for a few more minutes before saying goodbye and moving on to the next bunker to hand out more boxes.

**CIC, Battlestar Galactica**

The CIC of the Galactica had been repaired pretty well, most of the fixable damage was already fixed, though here and there the walls could use some paint. The rest of the ship was something else. The big hole had really screwed the ship up. Power was now being routed through the hanger bays but still suffered from sporadic blackouts. Casualties were high, of the nearly 3000 crewmember, a third had died and sickbay could barely handle all the wounded. The air wing was cut in half and could now only field about 70 vipers and fourteen raptors.

By some miracle Adama had managed to get both planets that were fighting to prepare a party, to discuss a possible cessation of hostilities. Unable to find a suitable place on either of the two planets, Adama -reluctantly- offered Galactica as neutral ground. Both sides were allowed to send four representatives, these would be picked up by raptors from Galactica. For the advanced side, the Dragor, this wasn't so difficult. The other side however, was made up from a number of nations, three of them the largest, so they settled on a representative for each of the three large nations, and one that would speak for the smaller nations.

"Admiral, the XO reports that both raptors have arrived and the delegations have past security checks. They are making their way over to the conference room." A lieutenant reported.

"Very well." Adama said. He was already wearing his best uniform. He had overcome the shock of the losses sustained near Ragnar. "Officer of the watch, you have the conn." Adama said as he walked out of the CIC.

A couple of minutes later he arrived at the conference room. The Dragor delegation had already arrived, they stood waiting for him, a bit annoyed for having to wait, their arrogance showing by the way they stood and looked around, surprised at the utilitarian interior of a ship that was supposed to be so advanced. Their uniforms were all the same, black and decorated with medals.

"Welcome aboard the Galactica, I am Admiral Adama. I have been informed that the other delegation will be here shortly."

The Dragor barely reacted and just remained standing. A minute or two later the other delegation arrived. They were escorted by colonel Tigh, and they too remained standing beside their seats. Adama and Tigh, not really knowing why both sides remained standing, stayed on their feet as well.

"I would like to welcome both sides represented here. The last few weeks we have been talking about ending the war going on between both sides. It is my hope that in the end we can reach a satisfactory conclusion of these talks that will hopefully end in a cessation of hostilities." Adama started. "I suggest we all take a seat, and start with an introduction." Adama said. He waited a bit but no side showed any attempt to go first. "Very well, I'll go first. I am Admiral Adama, commanding officer of the fourth Colonial fleet, I am also the commander of the Colonial Battlestar Galactica."

"Thank you, Admiral Adama." One of the delegates said. "My name is Henry Vernos, I am the representative of king Marnus the fourth, from the Kingdom of Tara-Magadha. I am also the deputy to the Tara-Magadha representative to the Allied war counsel." He slightly bowed his head in respect. His suit was a tan like color and his skin darkened from the sun. once he was done he took a seat.

Another delegate introduced herself. She looked old but showed no sign of it and appeared to be experienced in diplomacy. "I am Princess Jacqueline, aunt to king Reginald, king and ruler of the seven united kingdoms. I have been appointed as head of this delegation."

As princess Jacqueline sat down another delegate started. "I am prime minister Yanos, I am here at the behest of queen Anise, leader of the plains kingdom."

As the prime minister sat down the last delegate of that side introduced himself. He was different, he wore a military uniform. "I am supreme commander Gregory Vance. I am the commander of all Allied forces involved in the war against the Dragor. I also represent the smaller nations on the planet Varian that are normally unified in the league of minor nations."

"Welcome to you all." Adama said. He then turned to the Dragor delegation and motioned for them to introduce themselves.

"I am first lord Fistis, I will be the lead negotiator for my people, these are my associates, their names are not important, nor are their positions." One of the tallest of the four said. Once he was done he and the other three sat down simultaneously.

"Welcome everyone. The first thing I'd like to do is to get a bit of a background to this conflict. Considering that both sides usually have a different version of events leading up to the conflict I'd like for both sides to give their version, just to understand how they see this." Adama said. Lord Fistis and the four representatives from Varian nodded in acceptance. "Who wants to go first?"

Princess Jacqueline raised her hand. Adama nodded at her to proceed as Lord Fistis did not seem to object. "Thank you admiral. I think that the origin lays far in our history, back in the time that I was just a young girl. About 70 years ago Varian had approximately 350 independent and dependent nations. None of these nations really had much more power than the rest and therefore, numerous alliances were made. This system of alliances meant that no one would dare attack any other. Unfortunately, war broke out anyways and the involved nations called their allies to arms. This led to a domino effect and soon enough over three quarters of our world was at war. At this time we had no idea who the Dragor were, nor that they existed at all. Through war, diplomacy and strategic marriages our three kingdoms managed to increase their power and overcome our enemies. By the end of these wars there were four major powers and about two dozen minor powers. Of these four major powers three are represented here, the fourth, we had to fight after they tried to annex several of the smaller powers. It was during this war, the war we thought would end all wars, that we learned of the Dragor, they had secretly allied themselves with our enemies. At first, we didn't know what to do about it, we tried to contact the Dragor, but were unable to. When we tried to reach a cease fire, we were met with ridiculous terms, and we were forced to fight for our own freedom. For the first few years, we had much trouble fighting the Dragors' advanced technology, but eventually we managed to overcome the barrier, and rush them back to their current positions, ever since, we've been stuck in a static war, with little gains for both sides."

"Thank you Princess. May I ask what has become of this fourth power?" Adama asked.

"The Roth Empire has, as far as we know been virtually disbanded, the remains that are under Dragor control are theirs to rule, and the parts that we control have been divided across the bordering nations."

"And may I ask how the Roth people are treated today?"

"I cannot speak for those under Dragor rule, but those that are living in our nations are equals to their fellow citizens." Prime Minister Yanos said.

"Thank you." Adama made some notes and turned to the other side. The Dragor had been setting there silently and hadn't moved an inch. "Lord Fistis, would you be so kind to give us the Dragor's side of the war?"

"Very well." Lord Fistis said. "Approximately twenty five of your years ago we were contacted by the Roth people. We had been observing Varian for a while and knew about their wars and the fighting going on. At first we were unwilling to commit to any power while war was raging. But within a few years the fighting had ended and we were able to send some of our people to Roth without alerting the other powers, we deemed those to unstable to handle alien life. After a while we became friends, and we entered into an alliance with the Rothians. Several years later we were told there were border disputes between the Rothians and some of their neighbors, and in response the other powers declared war. At first we could do nothing to help, but after a while we sent some forces. Unfortunately they were too few and eventually they had to retreat. Eventually we managed to consolidate on a defendable position in the highlands, where we have been ever since. Along the line, the Roth government collapsed and we were forced to take over control to prevent their nation from completely collapsing."

"Thank you, Lord Fistis." Adama said. "Okay. Now I would like to map out each sides' final goals and the bare minimum they would need to accept a lasting peace, and, if possible, what we can do about it." Adama said meaning the Alliance. "Lord Fistis, if you would?"

"We understand that the Varians won't agree to give us all the territories we would like, but our best case, if you will, is the entire pre-war Roth Empire and the island Laki. The minimum would be an area the size of what we currently control with an additional 250 miles, the islands known as Laki and Szaksi, and the maritime regions surrounding these."

The Varian delegates were clearly mad, especially representative Henry Vernos was seething with anger.

"Mister Vernos, I can see you have trouble with these claims, why?"

"Why? Why you ask me? The island of Laki has been in Tara-Maghada possession for centuries. According to our myths the island is the birthplace for the Tara-Maghada royal family and is the source of our everlasting wealth, survival and power. Until the arrival of the Dragor, the island had been a natural reserve, only home to a very small group of people, and a retreat to the royal family. Since the Dragor's arrival we have stationed a small but adequate defense force on the island. This island is not something the Rothians, nor the Dragor have ever controlled, nor will they ever while any Tara-Maghadan is alive."

"Then perhaps we should change that." Lord Fistis said softly.

"How dare you threaten us with extermination!" Vernos yelled out in anger.

"The other nations will not stand for this." Vance supported Vernos. "Admiral Adama, what do you plan to do about this, it must be obvious what the Dragor want!"

"Perhaps we should just stop refraining ourselves and rid ourselves of the pests you are and just kill you all." Lord Fistis said.

"Lord Fistis! Galactica will not stand for such actions and we will most certainly not allow you to commence a genocide on the Varians, we would rather die!" Tigh said. His comment shut the others up immediately.

"Supreme Commander Vance, what do the Dragor, in your opinion, want?" Adama asked.

"Resources. And one mineral in special, one we simply call R1021. We have no use for this mineral but we do know that the Dragor have been mining it in their territory. They appear to be using it in their military vehicles. Both the islands they request are reported to have an abundance of this mineral, and the Roth empire contains some of the richest veins of this world, most of which lie within 250 miles from the current frontlines." Vance said.

"That changes things. Lord Fistis, if I'm going to ask you a direct question and I'd like a direct and honest answer." Fistis nodded. "Are those resources all you really care about?"

"The resources are an important reason for our current presence here, but we do have the wellbeing of the Rothians within our territory in mind."

"Very well. I may have an idea for a possible solution, I'd like about an hour to an hour and a half to work it out. I think it would be best to take a pause in the meanwhile, so we can all catch our breaths and calm down a bit."

"Fine." Lord Fistis said before he sneered and turned around and left with his delegation in tow.

**Mess hall, TFS Enterprise**

**December 25, 2024**

**2105 hours**

The main mess hall aboard the Enterprise was decorated with numerous Christmas things. The tables and chairs were all positioned in long rows and some of the mechanics had even been able to get some snow into the massive room. Most of the crew was participating in this Christmas dinner and only a skeleton crew manned critical positions, the ship was in friendly space after all. Aboard the other ships there were similar dinners being organized.

General Emerson, as well as the other officers were dispersed throughout the crew, today, rank didn't really matter much. After everyone had gotten something to drink Emerson stood up beckoning everyone to be quiet. "Ladies and Gentlemen, crew of the Enterprise, and crewmembers of the carrier battle group. I welcome you all here, to this Christmas dinner. I won't go into the history of this day, but I would like to go into this group's past year." Emerson said as he motioned the Enterprise Carrier Battle Group. "For the carrier and several of its escorts this year marked their first time in combat, and so far we have done well. We have shown the enemy what we are made of and we have left a mark upon our enemies. Already the reputation of the Enterprise and her escorts is growing and is spreading throughout the galaxy."

"The coming year promises to be violent, the Dominion's next goal will be to take out Earth and we will be part of that battle. While the rest of the fleet is already retreating towards the Alpha line we are not yet going back. We will, among others, continue the search for Galactica and keep harassing the Dominion advance as they draw nearer to the Alpha site. Eventually we will join the main fleet again. I am confident that the you will all carry yourselves proud and stand to your duties as history might be written with every battle we fight. It is for this reason that we are the first, and the finest!"

Everyone present immediately rose and lifted his or her glass. "To the Enterprise and her crew: the first, the finest!"

"To the Enterprise!" the crew repeated in unison.

**Conference Room, Galactica**

"Ladies and Gentlemen, I apologize for the delay, I hope that the facilities were to your satisfaction while you waited." Adama said as he walked in. none of the delegates responded, they just sat down.

"Alright, let's get down to business. The plan I have here before me has several options, depending on what either side is willing to give. What the plan is based on is the resources that the Dragor seek. There are several points which I will shortly discuss, most prominently the resources, the territories, and safety from attack."

"First point safety from attack." Adama said. "The easiest way is a stand down from both sides, declare a neutral area, a so called demilitarized zone where only civilians may come. If necessary this demilitarized zone could be enforced by alliance forces, we would call them peacekeepers."

"Second point, territories. The Varians have already made it crystal clear that they will not relinquish control of all the territories claimed by the Dragor, which I can very well understand. Therefore, I suggest that we leave the territories as they are, we won't make any territorial adjustments."

"Next, resources." Adama said as he felt that the Dragor were ready to pack up and leave. "The Dragor are obviously free to mine whatever resources they want in their own territories. In order to appease the Dragors' thirst for resources I suggest some sort of understanding that allows them to mine specific resources within Varian borders, but only for the total size of the former Roth Empire. This mining would be done by either Dragor laborers or local workers. The Dragor would pay some sort of fee for these mining rights. During the mining no irreparable may be done to the planet or its environment."

Adama went on and discussed a number of other points such as trade, troop sizes and orbital, aerial and naval control as well as several other issues. Eventually, once Adama was done both delegations returned to their planet to lay down the proposals to their leaders.

**CIC, Galactica**

**January 4, 2025**

"Sir, the Varians have finally called in their decision. They will agree to most of the terms but do have some minor adjustments they'd like to be introduced." The XO reported.

"That's good, why don't you send a raptor down to get the delegation so we can go over the adjustments. Have we heard anything from the Dragor?"

"Nothing sir, but we are detecting new launches, they are probably sending in more troops, not a good sign if you'd ask me." Tigh said.

"Have communications send a message to the Dragor, unless they are unwilling to continue the talks they should hold on any and all transports, as agreed upon before the talks started."

"Already done sir." Tigh replied.

A few minutes later someone brought him a paper.

"That's fast." Tigh whispered as he read it over. "Admiral, the Dragor claim that they are still discussing the proposals you made, in the meanwhile they need to reinforce their troops as a precaution for if the talks stall and fail."

"Their behavior is exactly what will make it fail." Adama said. "Send another message, we do not accept their explanation, those ships are to enter a stable orbit over their own planet or we will board and inspect them, any ships found to be carrying any more than resources or persons will be turned back. Weapons and war materials are not accepted."

"And what do we do if they resist the inspections?" Tigh asked.

"They better not."

"yes sir."

Ten minutes later Tigh had executed the orders but no sign of understanding had been given by the Dragor.

"How much ships did they launch?" Adama asked.

"Well, they seem to have prepared this. So far they have managed to get fourteen of the ground, one appears to have failed and crashed. Three have established a stable orbit but the remaining eleven are on a course to Varian."

"Do we know their cargo?"

"Long range cameras have established that two are personnel carriers, though they may hold weapons in their holds. At least one of those ships appears to have launch tubes, perhaps for an orbital bombardment, or for self-protection."

The DRADIS console beeped twice. Both officers automatically looked op to the console.

"We are reading missile launches from the surface, trajectories are still unknown, but there are only two targets worth hitting." Tigh said.

"Yeah, and neither is going to be hit." Adama said. He paused a moment, overthinking all his options. "Launch the alert Vipers. Launch marine raptor boarding parties to board all vessels not in a stable orbit over their home world."

"Admiral, this will spiral out of control soon." Tigh warned.

"Noted. XO, try to get me into direct contact with someone down there."

Tigh complied. Meanwhile the alert vipers were launched and most of the raptors were launched to carry the marines to their targets.

A couple minutes later Tigh had managed to get someone pretty high on the line. "Admiral, I've got some departmental prick on the line, he insists that he's high up the food chain."

"Put him on." Adama said as he grabbed one of the phones. "This is Admiral Adama. Your space ships and missiles are in violation of the agreements made previous to the talks, I require you to divert them from their current paths as previously requested."

"_That is currently not possible."_ The man replied.

"You better make it possible, because every missile that does not change course into a neutral heading will be shot down by my Vipers and every space ship that crosses the midway point between the two planets will be boarded by my marines. If they resist we will use deadly force, this is your last warning."

"_That will be considered an act of war."_

"As will you violating the agreements made with your lord Fistis." Adama said. "Sir, if your Government wishes to continue this course of action, I will be forced to take measures to secure the safety of the Varian people."

"_And what do you have to offer to the Varians, your warship has a big hole through it and it seems that most of your weapons are gone!"_ the man said laughing.

"The Galactica may have lost most of its energy weapons and shields, but that does not mean my kinetic weapons and Vipers won't work, never mind the arsenal of nuclear weapons stored aboard this ship."

"_As if we don't have any nuclear weapons."_

Adama put his hand over the phone. "Lieutenant," Adama said as he looked at one of the many lieutenants in the CIC, "Scan the missiles and vessels for radiological signatures." The Lieutenant went to work immediately.

Tigh stepped around the plot table to stand next to Adama. "If there were any nuclear weapons aboard those ships or missiles our sensors should have picked it up right?"

"Well, that prick was right about one thing, we took one hell of a beating getting out of Ragnar, nearly three quarters of the systems here have been rebooted with backup software, which might as well have been compromised. A manual scan will reveal any radiological signatures that the computer didn't pass on automatically."

"Very well, do you want a squadron of Vipers in the tubes, just in case?"

"Yes, and make sure the rest of the pilots and birds are at alert-5." Alert-5 was a level of readiness that meant that the vipers and pilots should be ready for launch within five minutes.

"_Dragor vessel, Dragor vessel, this is Galactica Raptor 5-3-niner, cut your engines and prepare to be inspected."_ One of Galactica's raptor pilots come over the coms.

"This ought to be interesting." Tigh said.

Adama removed the hand from the phone. "Sir, one of my Raptors is about to board one of your vessels, if you return them now, all possible horrors that go with nuclear weapons can be spared on both of our sides."

Adama waited for a response but didn't get any. He looked over to the petty officer responsible for communications but he just looked as confused as Adama. "Keep the line open in case they get back, but make sure they can't listen into what happens here." The petty officer just nodded.

"XO, what about those Vipers in the tubes, are they ready for launch?"

"Yes sir."

"Set condition two throughout the ship. Have the Alert Vipers intercept and take up firing positions on the rockets, Launch the Vipers in the tubes and put the rest of the squadrons in the tubes as well."

Tigh picked up a phone and made the announcements. "This is the XO, Set condition two throughout the ship, I repeat, set condition two throughout the ship. Launch Viper squadron two, all other squadrons are to prepare for immediate launch."

"Sir Raptor 539 reports that the ship is not stopping, they request permission to cut through the hull."

"Granted, have a pair of vipers from squadron 2 intercept the ship and fire warning shots across the bow, make sure to be clear about that."

"Sir, you're gonna want to see this." A Lieutenant said. "The radiological scan is coming back."

"How bad?" Tigh asked.

"Very bad." The Lieutenant replied as both Adama and Tigh arrived at his station. They took a quick look at his screen.

"Is that…" Tigh started.

"Yes." Adama answered. Adama quickly reached for one of the phones. "Raptor 539, abort, I repeat, abort boarding action, stand down, that ship's carrying hot nukes! Get the frak out of there!" Adama watched the DRADIS console for a bit and saw the raptor break away from the ship. "What else do we've got?"

Those missiles? They're MIRV's, and large ones."

"Have the Alert vipers taken up position on those missiles yet?"

"Thirty seconds out."

Adama picked up the phone. "Gold Squadron, Actual here. You are weapons free, engage and destroy the missiles."

"_Copy that Galactica, we are weapons free, engage and destroy the missiles. Consider it done."_ The Squadron leader reported. The speakers continued to broadcast the orders he was giving to his pilots.

Over the next few minutes the nearly thirty missiles were taken out by the Vipers. No losses or damage was taken.

"_Galactica, this is Gold Squadron all targets destroyed, what are our orders?"_

"Gold squadron, Actual here, join up with Blue squadron and cover them."

"_Copy that."_

"Lieutenant what else can you tell me about those ships, do they all carry nukes?"

"Most of them sir, though we can't distinguish between nuclear propulsion and nuclear weapons."

"Check the amount and dispersion of the radiation on the targets, low amounts concentrated in one place is most likely a power source, large amounts spread throughout the ship, means weapons." Adama instructed the young lieutenant.

After a minute he had the answers Adama was waiting for. "Sir, I've got four confirmed targets, big ones too."

"Mark them hostile on the DRADIS Console, the others orange. Do we have anything on the types of weapons? Their range, anything?"

"Not much sir, at least one of those ships has launch tubes, the others might, but we're not yet sure, we'd need to get vipers or raptors to make a mark one eyeball confirmation on the hatches."

"And give them a chance to take our ships out? No way. I want you to try again, to make contact with those ships, and tell them that if they don't return to their planet we will take them out, any means necessary." Adama said to Tigh. "Let's hope that the destruction of their missiles changed their minds a bit."

Another few minutes went by as Tigh communicated with the ships.

"Sir, they still refuse to turn around. They just don't buy it." Tigh said.

"Then have a pair of vipers intercept the first ship, have them fire across the bow and then take up position on their six. Once there, they are to target every jammer, scanner, DRADIS and other equipment they have on that ship. Let them know we are serious."

"Yes sir." Tigh replied. He picked up a phone and relayed the orders. Within minutes two vipers were nearing the first Dragor ship. They fired across the bow and took up position on their six.

"_No response yet, activating tracking systems." _One of the pilots reported. _"No joy, Locking on, arming missiles."_ There was a short pause. _"Galactica, I have a lock, request permission to fire."_

Just as Adama wanted to give the 'go' the DRADIS beeped. "Hold one."

"Sir, the ships are turning. They're not heading for Varian anymore."

"Thank the gods they turned around." Tigh said.

"No sir, they are not turning around, they are heading on a course that'll take them between the Dragor home world and us." A lieutenant reported.

"Recall those two vipers, have both squadrons take up cover positions near Galactica. Let's see what they're going to do now."

"Sir, if they continue on this course with the present speed their path will be closest to Galactica in about 25 minutes."

"Keep them under surveillance, I want to know if anything changes. Call me in twenty minutes." Adama said. He walked out of the CIC.

Twenty minutes later Adama walked back into the CIC. Nothing had changed and the Dragor vessels were still on their present course. "SitRep."

"The Dragor vessels are still on their course. That Dragor idiot called back again, he was outraged, didn't have anything useful to add. Our vipers have taken up station at our mid-ships defense zone, both above and below the damage."

"Is condition two still in effect?" Adama asked.

"Yes sir, all vipers are ready in the tubes, gun crews are standing by and a full watch has been set."

"Good."

A nearby console beeped twice. Adama and Tigh didn't pay any attention to it, consoles regularly beeped and there were other people to tend to those consoles.

"Sir, we're reading a large transmission to the lead ship." The petty officer's console beeped again. "The other ships are also receiving transmissions, as well as those in orbit of Dragor."

"Can we listen in?"

"It's not a voice or video transmission, its pure data."

"Still, can we intercept and read the message?"

"We're trying sir. But we haven't been able to get a match yet, perhaps it isn't any known language, perhaps they're codes."

Tigh leaned over to Adama, "Launch codes?"

"Or coded orders? Perhaps we just can't decrypt the encryption."

"Any activities aboard those ships?"

"None noted except for some nuclear signatures, but they're all related to an increased power output."

An alarm blared. "What's going on?"

"They're activating ECM systems, they're trying to cover something, but something is building, we're reading massive power surges."

"Set Condition one throughout the ship." Adama ordered.

Tigh reached for the phone, but before he could grab it and give the order all systems shut down at once. Some emergency lighting came back online.

"What's going on?" Adama demanded.

"No clue sir, I think we were hit by an EMP." Someone said. "Backup power should kick in soon."

Just as it was said the backup power kicked in. most systems came back online.

"Sir, what about our ships out there?" Tigh asked.

"Shit, launch recovery raptors and two more squadrons of vipers."

"Yes sir." Tigh called the orders through, he also rose the condition to one, since he hadn't been able to do it before the EMP.

"Power is coming back online." Someone said as the power got back, the lighting got bright again and all systems came back to full power.

Immediately numerous consoles beeped and a few alarms blared. This was nothing new after a reboot, usually sensor systems were quicker in detecting things than the computers that stored all known and tagged return hits from the sensors before the power outage.

"Sir! We've got massive activity."

"Tell me."

"Missile launches! That ship's launching missiles.

"Launch all vipers! Activate defense grid, create a FLAK barrier, all units and guns fire at will."

Immediately the defense batteries opened fire. Within seconds an effective flak barrier was established and the first vipers were already being catapulted out of their launch tubes. There was still enough distance between the Galactica and the Dragor missiles so the first wave was taken out quickly.

"Sir, first salvo taken out. We're reading a second, much larger salvo from the first ship. The second, third and fourth ships are also launching nukes, we may get swamped with missiles."

"Initiate nuclear attack mission. Prepare two low yield nuclear missiles for each ship coming in for an attack."

"Yes sir." A Captain said. The captain, together with Adama went to the missile control station, to the side of the CIC. Tigh stayed behind to continue giving orders as he saw fit.

"Colonel, those ships that were in orbit of Dragor, they are moving towards us, they are moving at high speed as well sir." Someone reported.

"We'll have to take care of them as well. Add those ships to the target list for the nuclear attack mission." Tigh said.

"All viper squadrons have been launched, first and second squadrons are combat ineffective and are being towed in by raptors."

"Second wave has been destroyed." Someone reported. "Third salvo is halfway, fourth salvo is being launched."

"Tell the Vipers to intercept as soon as they can!"

"They're trying sir, but they are unable to properly organize, some might get through."

"That's just fracking perfect!" Tigh replied. None replied to him.

One by one the Viper pilots reported kills and one by one the missiles disappeared from DRADIS. Unfortunately, some got through.

"_Galactica, you've got some incoming, all vipers break, break, break!"_ one of the pilots reported.

"All hands, brace for impact!" Tigh warned the crew.

Seconds later everyone was thrown to the ground as the nuke struck Galactica. Seconds later the ship was struck another two times

As Tigh got back up on his feet he requested a damage report.

"Three low yield nuclear blasts to the port bow, the hull plating is holding all the radiation back, damage is limited to bent hatches and the kind, the armor kept most of the damage out. We do have damage to the forward thrusters, they are locked open, we're on a twenty degrees course towards starboard, thirty degrees down."

"What about the fourth wave of missiles?"

"It's been taken out by the blasts of the three hits."

"And our vipers?"

"Twelve lost, fourteen to damaged to continue, the rest is waiting for orders or a fifth wave."

"There isn't a fifth wave?"

"No sir, it seems they are either empty or waiting for orders, perhaps their sensors were blinded by the blasts."

"Very well, keep me informed of any occurrences." Tigh said as he walked to the missile control station. "Admiral."

"Colonel, missiles are launching momentarily." They both walked back to the central DRADIS console from where they could watch the missiles heading for the first four ships.

Just a few minutes later all four missiles struck home, the four ships were taken out.

"All four ships have been taken out."

"Another six ships are on approach from Dragor orbit. We have not yet received any radiological alarms."

"Have two squadrons intercept them, and have some raptors follow them in and perform radiological scans."

A couple of minutes later the raptors and vipers formed up and moved in. halfway through the raptors could get a radiological scan done.

"_Galactica, we have positive matches on the incoming ships, they are carrying missiles, and a lot more than the previous ones."_

"Copy, viper squadrons three and four, engage and destroy the ships, fire at will."

"_Copy Galactica, engage and destroy, we'll be in range in 90 seconds."_

Adama and Tigh, as well as a number of others tensely watched the DRADIS screen. The two groups moved towards each other quickly.

"Sir, the Dragor ships are turning, half of them a 90 degree turn to the starboard, the others to port."

"They are launching missiles!"

The DRADIS screen, which had focused on the six ships and the approaching vipers turned red as numerous missiles were launched. The vipers tried to intercept as much as possible but were overwhelmed. Some of the vipers were actually hit by the missiles.

"Send in all vipers, tell them to target the missiles that are going to the mid ships defense zone and the stern, have long range FLAK rounds intercept those missiles going for the bow. Once the missiles get to close fire full flak barrage." Adama ordered.

Suddenly the DRADIS console beeped and kept beeping. Within a few seconds the DRADIS screen zoomed out to show the entire surroundings of the Galactica

"Capital ship inbound! 069 Carom 121, CBDR 22400 meters!"

"Identify!"

"It's a Battlestar alright. Frak it's the Tjolver!"

"Connect me through to the Tjolver!" Adama said as he picked up a nearby phone.

"This is the Battlestar Galactica to the Battlestar Tjolver, Identify."

"_This is Tjolver Actual, it's good to hear your voice Admiral, never thought I would again."_

"Starbuck, good to hear a friendly voice."

"_Same here sir. Do you need some help?"_

"Yes, we're currently under attack, I need you to take out those nukes heading for us, we won't be able to take that much."

"_Copy that sir."_

Seconds later the Tjolver launched its air wing, and the ship itself moved itself into a position between the Galactica and the missiles. As more and more missiles were destroyed two more ships exited hyperspace, these were Tau'ri 306 class ships, though small and relatively weakly armed they made quick work of the Dragor ships that had launched the missiles before they rendezvoused with Galactica and Tjolver.

Twenty minutes later Adama gave the all clear and the ships stood down to condition three. Most vipers were recalled and the commanders of the new ships were called to Galactica.

**Mk. 8 viper, on approach to Galactica**

Commander Thrace gently lined her viper up for a standard approach.

"_Viper 8737/Galactica, you are cleared for approach. Speed 175, port bay, dock 2, hands-on approach, checkers green, call the ball."_

"Copy Galactica, I have the ball."

Without a problem Thrace brought the viper aboard and landed at dock two. Magnetic locks tied the viper down to the elevator she had landed her viper on and the elevator started bringing her down into the hanger bay. Within a minute her viper was powered down on the deck and she was out of her viper. As she signed off on the checklist given to her by the deck chief, a marine approached her.

"Commander, Admiral Adama requested I escort you to the CIC Ma'am."

"Why? I do know my way around a Battlestar."

"Ma'am, we've taken a lot of damage, we had to create some new hallways to make it easier to get from place to place."

"I see. Lead the way."

The marine led the way and minutes later Thrace was delivered to the CIC.

"Admiral." Thrace said as she saluted. The commanders of the two Tau'ri ships were already there.

"Commander, glad you could join us." Adama replied.

"Sir, we're already working on arranging a hyperspace tow for you, when can you leave?"

"Not yet. We've got to get some more units down here. Galactica's been trying to end a war, that nuclear entanglement you jumped in on was an attempt by the Dragor to get rid of us."

"So we call the Tau'ri to jump in on this, they've got much more resources than we do, Galactica's in no shape to do anything else than sit in a shipyard for repairs."

"Okay, commander Armstrong, have you contacted Atlantis and reported in yet?" Adama asked one of the Tau'ri commanders.

"Yes sir, we've got a battleship on the way, along with some relieve supplies and they probably have a diplomatic team aboard as well. Atlantis also sent eight hyperspace tugs to get Galactica to Earth to get patched up, they should be here within the hour."

"Okay, I'll have all my reports ready for that team, if you don't mind, I'd like you to beam up the Varian delegation, they should be standing by. I'll give them briefing of what's happened and what's going to happen. Afterwards, assuming that battleship has a diplomatic team I'll help with the introductions." Adama said.

"Yes sir." All three said. Adama dismissed the two Tau'ri commanders whom both got back to their ships. Thrace stayed behind. "So, you found us because of the EMP?"

"Yeah, we were the nearest ship, we were scouting out a nearby system, looking for you when we picked it up. We sent all the info to Atlantis before we tried a FTL jump, the computer gave an error so we went in by hyperspace, took a bit longer, but we got here anyways."

"I see. How's the fighting going on the colonies?"

"Pretty good, the Dominion are taking massive casualties. We haven't lost much ground." Thrace said. She waited for a bit. "Sir, I'm sorry for your loss, I eh.. I read the transcripts of the wireless… Gods this sucks. I failed bringing the news to Gianna to, I can't stand this."

"It's okay Kara. Nothing you could have done about it. Lee died going down with the ship, he probably saved our lives and destroyed a dozen more battle cruisers."

"The president sends her condolences, she's awaiting your arrival at Earth."

"You've been in contact with her?"

"Just a communique."

"How are Gianna and the kids?"

"It really broke her up, Lee gone, you missing, all that allowed her to keep it together were the kids."

"Those five are all that I've got left. And you Kara." Adama said trying to keep back his tears. "Galactica's probably going to the breakers, she has reached the end of her journey, the old girl will probably never fight again."

"You've got the President to, she's been moving heaven and earth to get as much as possible ships out looking for you. Besides, Galactica is a beacon of hope for the Colonial people, she'll retake her role as museum ship, that's for sure, no one will try to break her up."

"Anyways, I'll pay Gianna a visit once I'm done here."

"The faster the better." Thrace said as she saw a number of out-of-uniform people walking into the CIC. Adama noticed it and turned around.

"Delegates, it's good to meet you again…"

Adama quickly brought the delegates up to speed on what had exactly happened and what was going to happen. An hour later the hyperspace tugs were ready to bring Galactica back to Earth. Not much later the Tjover left as well. Meanwhile the Tau'ri had brought in some forces, mostly to help mediate a cease fire, this time much more forceful.

**if you liked it, leave a review**


	16. Chapter 15

**Thanks to Rudy Pena and just-a-crazy-man for the beta**

**school made me forget about this for nearly a week, so here it is.  
**

**Oval office, white house**

**February 8, 2025**

"Gentlemen, welcome." Ryan said as the directors of the TFBI, TFCIA and TF Security Agency and Detective Pat O'Day, lead investigator of the December 12th assassinations, walked into the office. They all got seated and a secretary brought in a tray with coffee, tea and something to eat.

"So, Detective, I heard some rumors about the investigation almost being completed." Ryan started.

"Yes sir." O'Day replied.

"So tell me what I don't already know."

O'Day looked over at his immediate boss, Director Murray, who gave him a nod.

"Sir, I think we all know that the Dominion are behind this." O'Day said. He received a nod from the president. "We have finally been able to make all the links, get the suppliers of the weapons, transportation and other things the assassins used to infiltrate the alliance worlds and carry out the attacks. We know that the Dominion used a number of intermediaries, most of these were former Lucian Alliance mercenaries with enough connections and most were captured by the Dominion. They used their contacts to set up the separate attacks and were only told a target, and date. Most of the assassins used were from fringe worlds, either fighting for money or out of hatred against the alliance. This is one side of the network. The other side are insiders, people on our end working on giving the assassins access to their targets. We now know that all these insiders were recruited by personnel that were captured as well. They were brought back to our sides of the lines on April 12th, 2024, the Dominion attack at the Colonial evacuation fleet. We have finally been able to round all of them up and they will eventually be given a lengthy prison sentence, depending on the severity of their involvement."

"What is being done to prevent any of this from happening again?" Ryan asked.

"We've increased security, high clearance personnel will be scanned more often and numerous other measures. In addition we have compiled a list of persons, institutions, planets and nations somehow involved in organizing the attacks, as said most of these are fringe worlds doing the bidding of the Dominion. This list, with your approval, will be turned over to the military and TFCIA black ops division for punitive measures, so to say."

"And all those on the list cannot be brought to justice by our own justice system." Ryan concluded.

"Yes sir. It might be possible for an alliance ruling to get some sort of jurisdiction, but for this instance I wouldn't recommend it." The Director of the TFBI said.

"I agree, we need to send a message that any kind of attack on us or our allies won't be tolerated." Ryan said.

"Pat, I want you to turn that list over to JSOC, they can compile a list of actions to be taken. I want the galaxy to know what happens to those that conspire against us and our allies. Therefore, make sure there is no doubt on who is behind this." Ryan said. He already saw Director Foley of the TFCIA waiting for a moment to object. "Which is why the TFCIA won't get to do this job. If one of our covert agencies does this it might imply that we wish to keep it secret, or that we aren't that proud about the actions we have taken. The TFCIA, as well as any other agency will give their full corporation to JSOC, though that shouldn't be anything new."

All three directors nodded.

"Once the investigation is finished and a public report has been made ready, Detective O'Day can make the presentation to the press."

Before Ryan could give any additional instruction someone knocked on the door and entered. "Sir, you're needed in the situation room on Atlantis, something bad just happened on Tauron." A Secret Service agent reported.

"Thank you." He said to the agent. "Well, I've got to go, I think you all know what to do." Ryan said to his guests, they all nodded as they stood up. Once they were out of the room a number of Secret Service agents walked in and stood in a protective circle around the president, weapons drawn. Once the lead agent gave the word the president and his detail were beamed out to Atlantis. Once there he only had to walk a short bit before he reached the situation room.

As he walked in he saw a UAV feed projected on a screen, it showed what appeared to be a wide valley with numerous Dominion forces marching through, unopposed.

"What happened. He quickly demanded.

"The Dominion blew a hole in our defenses." O'Neill reported as he stood up.

"How much did we lose?"

"An entire battalion, no survivors yet."

"Why the hell was there only a battalion assigned to defend that valley! You'd need like a brigade to defend that place."

"Sir, twenty minutes ago, that wasn't a valley, but in fact a mountainous region with an average height of about 2500 meters." O'Neill said. "The Dominion used some sort of WMD to evaporate our battalion, a peak of 4500 meters and all ground and rock in a two mile radius."

"Shit." Was all Ryan could manage.

"We are sending in the 21st National Guard Army Corps, it contains two armored divisions and two mechanized divisions, they are the reserve forces on Tauron. With this hole in the line, the Dominion could potentially reach the city of Hypathia, cut off ninety thousand soldiers from their supply depots and be in a perfect position to cut our forces in two." General Moore, the Chief of staff for the Army said.

"Have you place one of the Rapid Reaction Forces on stand-by?"

"Yes sir, the 18th Rapid Reaction Corps has been placed on stand-by. They can depart from the Alpha site in hours and be ready for Corps sized operations within a day. The 12th MEU can be in Hypathia within four hours, once the orders are given."

"Will they be necessary?"

"Not as it is now, but if any other units get hit the same way we will need them. The 10th Mountain division is already preparing to fall back a couple of miles, this way they'll have more time to spot and intercept the Dominion WMD, assuming they can identify it. They are currently awaiting the results of the 21st corps before they'll take any such action."

Ryan just silently nodded. "How many?"

"Excuse me sir?"

"How many souls in that battalion."

"Approximately 850 men and women. We'll have a list ready in a couple of hours, we'll need to check if anyone was evacuated shortly before the blast."

**19****th**** armored division (NG) **_**'Black Cats'**_

**140 kilometers north-east of Hypathia**

**3 miles south of waypoint Yuma**

The _Black Cats_ was one of the many National Guard divisions in service with the Tau'ri Federation's army. Since the Dominion's arrival numerous reserve units had been called to active duty. Ever since the unification of Earth into the Tau'ri federation the army had tried to merge all the reserve forces into one cohesive uniform force. But because of the very nature of reserve duty this had been hard to do. Most reservists had needed nearly half a year of continuous training to get up to speed with the most modern of weapons that they would employ in case of war. Eventually the reserves were split in the active, and inactive reserves. The active reserves were represented as the National Guard, state sponsored military units which could be used for state duties as well as for federation duty. The other part, the inactive reserves were those that would only receive training one week a year until they departed from the military altogether. Now, with the war in full swing, most of the National Guard had been called to active duty and had been trained and equipped just as well as any regular unit in the Federation army, and would be part of front line units as well. All that separated them from the regular units was experience and a bit of discipline.

"_This is Buldog-6 to all bulldog units. Hostile forces have been spotted at two miles past phase line Yuma, once you have a visual you are cleared to engage and destroy any and all hostile targets."_ The Battalion commander announced over the radio. One by one the company commanders replied.

Lieutenant Wicks reported to his company commander that his platoon was ready for combat. He himself sat in the turret of the M1A5 Schwarzkopf tank. He raised the advanced binoculars to his eyes and scanned the horizon. Unfortunately they were in a long and low valley so he couldn't find the Dominion yet. In the far off distance he could hear the sound of the self-propelled artillery pieces of the division firing. He knew there were supposed to be helicopters and bombers flying in from all over Tauron to halt the Dominion advance and hopefully stop the gap. But so far he hadn't seen or heard any.

"_This is Bulldog 2-6 to all Bulldog 2 units, increase speed to 55 KPH and let's clear this valley, once we've reached the high ground, slow down to 15 KPH while the rest of the battalion catches up_." Wicks' company commander ordered.

Quickly the five companies, three armored, two mechanized, charged up the other side of the valley.

Lieutenant Wicks' tank was the first vehicle to reach the high ground and what he saw made him crack a smile. "This is Buldog 2-3, enemy spotted, we're engaging." He reported. Moments later his gunner reported he had a target for an anti-infantry round.

"Gunner, fire at will, loader activate autoloader and get up here to man the 7.62." Wicks himself activated the systems for the M2 .50 BMG.

The tank jumped up a bit as the first round left the barrel. It sped towards a cluster of dominion. At an altitude of about three meters the round exploded over the Dominion, it showered shrapnel everywhere downing nearly twenty Dominion and wounding many more.

Wicks used the advanced systems of the M2 to find and accurately target the enemy. Het let loose a few bursts, quickly followed by the loader next to him. Other tanks and vehicles also made it on to the high ground and joined in.

As usual, when dominion infantry meets Tau'ri armor it quickly turns into a one way slaughter. This time some Dominion actually managed to get some AT weapons set up, though few shields were disabled before any such weapons were blown to smithereens by Tau'ri armor and artillery. Eventually the battalion ran over about a division worth of Dominion forces. They advanced another ten clicks before halting and waiting for the rest of the division to catch up with them. About half an hour later they were ordered to advance again.

"_This is Buldog-6 to all bulldog units. Advance to phase line gamma, 25 KPH."_

"2-3 copies." Wicks replied. He looked up to see a flight of A-10D's pass overhead.

They drove on and listened in on the chatter from other units currently engaged. A couple of minutes later the A-10's returned, minus one while another was trailing smoke.

"There goes our air support." Wicks' loader said.

"Yep. I wonder if they'd hit something."

"Something did hit them, that's for sure."

Somewhere to their left a Schwarzkopf fired a round at an unknown target. Immediately everyone was on their guard again. Wicks scanned the horizon more intensely.

"Gunner, is thermal working?"

"_Sorta, bodies are hard to see, but engines and fires are clear. You've got a target?"_

"Yeah, check your eleven, at about 3800, I'm illuminating."

"_I see what you mean, but I couldn't say for sure."_

Suddenly out of nowhere the sun seemed to appear from behind the clouds brightly. As Wicks raised his arm to shield his eyes he faintly saw a blue-greenish mushroom cloud rising high above the units on his left flank. As he gasped in awe the shockwave passed them and violently shook the tank while all kinds of objects were thrown around. A heat wave followed and though the shields held most out he could feel it. All around him chunks of greenish blubber fell down to earth. Where the chunks landed they either exploded or remained. Once he saw a Bradley drive against one such blob, the blob immediately exploded, destroying the Bradley and showering the area with smaller blobs of blubber. Some just remained on the ground where they impacted, while others hit shields and in some cases destroyed the vehicles but in most cases depleted the shields.

"_All units, avoid those plasma charges, they destroy anything!"_ Someone Wicks didn't recognize ordered over the wireless.

Momentarily chaos erupted over the channels as everyone reported something. To add to the confusion some units started firing into the distance. Wicks checked the horizon and to his horror a mass of soldiers and even a number of vehicles approached them.

"Gunner, Targets, twelve o'clock, fire at will, focus on vehicles first!"

Seconds later the tank jumped back as a sabot round was underway to a place of soon to be destruction. The return fire was sporadic, most Dominion vehicles could not bridge the distance. The Dominion artillery was able to hit the Tau'ri formations moving forwards.

"_All Buldog Units, advance, advance, advance!"_ their CO ordered. All vehicles surged forwards at speeds nearing the hundred KP/H. Thirty seconds later a massive artillery bombardment hit their previous positions.

Unfortunately their rapid advance had brought them within a thousand meters of the Dominion lines. This brought them well into the range of Dominion weapons. The now more or less dispersed Tau'ri units were unable to quickly reform into something more cohesive and the amassed firepower of the Dominion brought down shield after shield. After a few minutes a few A-10D's came in and dropped bombs on the Dominion forces, but damage was only limited to small parts of the line.

Wicks was lucky in that he had managed to find cover in an old creek, most of his tank was covered from direct fire while only his turret was sticking out above the creek. Somewhere along the way his shields were depleted and for the first time since being mobilized he felt really threatened. Already two Bradleys had joined his position and had deployed their infantry. Most of the units that Wicks could see from his position were pinned down and unable to advance any further because the enemy was attacking in force. His own position was quite defendable, he had clear line of sights and the two bradleys were great at cutting down groups of infantry. He had his gunner target anything that the bradleys couldn't handle, which wasn't much. He himself was using his M2 .50 to target any cluster of Dominion infantry. He tried to stay as low as possible, numerous times, blasts passed by his position, sometimes barely missing him. He also checked the AIVIS (Advanced Intervehicular Information System) for the positions of the rest of the tanks under his command. Apparently, out of 4 tanks, including his own, only two were left combat worthy. One had been destroyed outright, its transponder having disappeared, the other having been taken out, it's crew killed when an artillery round fried them in their seats. From what else he could discover on the AIVIS display he surmised that nearly half the brigade had somehow been disabled. The hostile troops that were indicated in red were so numerous that he in fact didn't believe them.

Even now, frantic calls came in from every unit involved, either asking for orders, or giving them. Unfortunately, over half the commanding officers had perished already. Despite the massive force in front of them, most of the damage was done by the Dominion artillery. Normally the Fortress shields would force the Dominion artillery to approach the Tau'ri lines, which would make them susceptible to Tau'ri artillery. Now, the Dominion forces were operation far within the Tau'ri shields that were supposed to protect the entire region against the dominion.

Wicks tried to contact his CO but didn't get a response. Even when he tried the XO of the company he didn't get a reply. Eventually he tried something else. "This is Bulldog 2-3 to any command authority! Take down the Dominion artillery, we're getting slaughtered out here!"

To his surprise the reply came in quickly.

"_Copy Bulldog 2-3, rounds are underway."_

Seconds later the first rounds flew over soon followed by many more. Within minutes the Dominion artillery ceased fire. Whatever remained targeted the Tau'ri artillery, but not very effectively. After the first two or three minutes the Tau'ri artillery units moved to other firing positions just in case their positions were plotted by Dominion artillery radar units.

"_BCT 2, prepare to collect your dead and wounded, BCT 4 will take over your positions and cover your withdrawal." _ Someone ordered over the brigade network. Once again, Wicks didn't recognize the voice, though he was sure it wasn't the brigade commander, nor the division commander or his XO.

About five minutes later a platoon of Bradley's, as well as two Schwarzkopfs joined his position and the highest commander told Wicks to gather his men and get back to the rally point, twenty-five kilometers back.

Fifteen minutes later most of the Dominion had been taken out or at least suppressed so that all the dead and wounded could be collected and evacuated before BCT 4 also retreated the full twenty- five kilometers, behind the protection of a defense line made up of BCT's 1 and 3.

**Situation room, Atlantis**

Ryan and the Joint chiefs were still watching the UAV feeds depicting the battle on Tauron. They had watched in horror as the entire advance had gone to hell and had listened to the desperate calls over the network. To them the situation was much cleared than to the commanders on the ground. The initial blow, the Dominion WMD had taken out both the corps commander, the division commander and the brigade commander instantly, basically decapitating the 2nd BCT and the 19th armored division. It had taken a personal call from General Maynard to direct every artillery tube and aircraft towards this particular battle.

Eventually the commander of the 4th BCT had pulled everyone together and had sent his brigade forwards to help the battered 2nd BCT in their retreat. For this he had earned a commendation and field promotion to Major General and command of the 19th Armored. Ryan had waited in horror as many soldiers were killed or evacuated to military hospitals. It would take a few hours before any definitive numbers of KIA/WIA/MIA were available.

Ryan looked at general Maynard. "Do it." He just said. He was referring to the deployment of the 18th Rapid Reaction Corps.

The general picked up a phone and gave the order. Within a few hours the 12th MEU would be on the planet and start with fortifying the area around the river running through the city of Hypathia. They would take care of the bridges and any shallow places in the river. Throughout the night, the rest of the 18th RRC would arrive, it consisted of 1st and 6th Airborne divisions, as well as the 11th airmobile division and the 14th Light infantry brigade. They would set up their defenses along the river to protect the supply lines while the 21st NG Corps would retreat and establish new defensive lines and help evacuate the civilians. Several other units would also have to retreat and establish new defenses. The 10th mountain would retreat as well. The city of Loutoufio would be evacuated, it would become the new frontline of the war.

**TFS Charles Beckwith**

**February 18**

**Alros, Rim planets**

The Charles Beckwith was one of twelve special made 306 class warships. They were designed to serve the TF joint special operations command and were all assigned to the 160th special Operations Aviation's Regiment _'Nightstalkers'._ For instance, over a quarter of her insides had been gutted to make room for a landing bay, now, instead of two, it could hold eight space hawks, or twelve Colonial raptors, of course, a combination of both or other craft was also possible, but the space hawk and raptor were the most used by special forces. In addition the ships also had ancient cloaks and phase shifting technology at their disposal. For this specific mission its bay held six space hawks, four for transport, two as armed escorts.

The mission of the Beckwith was to deliver the ground assault unit for Operation Fantastic, part of the **G**alactic **C**ounter **T**errorism **C**ampaign. The core of the GCTC was the response to the galaxy wide assassination wave last year. But other targets were also included, mostly states or groups that had been terrorizing alliance members for ages. On Alros, one of the rim planets, a dictator was helped into power by the Dominion, a small but capable resistance was supported by the Tau'ri. The dictator provided weapons and other materials that were used in the attack on the Alliance council. Several days ago eight teams of Delta sniper recon teams had arrived to scout out their latest mission, the dictator and his regime. For this purpose, the rebels had overrun the guards at the stargate so that the Delta teams could arrive. Now the sniper teams were located around the government complex that was supposed to hold a regime meeting.

The Beckwith had arrived in the morning so that the group had the entire day to prepare for the mission. At noon the Beckwith had landed and contact was made with the local rebels. The six space hawks were readied and supplies were delivered to the rebel forces. If the attack was successful the rebels would be in a prime position to take over control of the capital, and with that, the rest of the planet. The Beckwith had its own command center for special operations. Today a colonel was in command of the mission, he wasn't your average Tau'ri Colonel, for starters his hair was long and he didn't really wear a Tau'ri uniform. Nevertheless, he was one of the best in the business and his sight commanded respect from everyone who had ever heard his name.

"Colonel Dex, Team 2 reports that the tangoes have arrived at the target location, all are present." A lieutenant reported.

"Good. Launch the strike team, tell the snipers, show time approximately 19 minutes from now." Ronon Dex replied.

Each space hawk carried a force of sixteen soldiers, four delta, and twelve rangers. The delta units would enter the compound and capture or kill –their orders weren't particularly clear on that subject- the Alros dictatorial regime. The Rangers would secure the perimeter and aid the Delta operators wherever necessary. The two armed space hawks would first destroy the guard barracks on site and then proceed to support the ground units wherever necessary.

Almost twenty minutes later the space hawks were on final approach to their target. According to the sniper teams no one had raised an alarm so they went on as planned. As the first sniper team picked up the sounds of the ultra-silent space hawks, the order was given to take out all visible guards. They were actually so quick that no one was able to raise the alarm. This made for the very slight change in plans for the escorts not to take the barracks out but to remain in an over watch position, ready to take the barracks or any other threat out.

In the lead helicopter the four Delta operators did a last check of their weaponry and equipment. All four operators had the rank of sergeant-major. Once the helicopter touched down the lead operator jumped out immediately followed by the second operator. The third and fourth operators exited the helicopter at the other side. They immediately ran through the entrance where the guards were already dead. Meanwhile the rangers debarked and four of them made for a nearby guard building, they would kill the guards with grenades, it would only be a matter of minutes before they were discovered.

Inside the complex the lead operator, codenamed Dirt Diver led his team down hallway after hallway. He didn't have time to clear every single room they passed, another team was not far behind them and they would clear the rooms and watch their backs. Their own job was to overrun the regime's guards and basically kill everyone present. They knew where they had to be because the rebels had a number of spies inside the regime which provided invaluable intelligence. Their advance was nearly unhindered, they managed to kill anyone who got in their way. After about a minute of this they suddenly heard an explosion quickly followed by gunfire and more explosions. Seconds later one of the Rangers called in and reported that they had taken the barracks out and had secured the ground floor area for the moment.

Dirt Diver and the second operator, Cool Breeze hugged the left wall as they advanced while the other two operators, Betty Blue and Red Cap stayed close to the right wall. Once the explosions started security personnel tried to rush to the surface, every time the team encountered any personnel they took them out using their silence weapons. They didn't stop for anything except when they rounded a corner or exited a stairwell. After a minute or so they reached the hallway leading to the room where the dictator and his cronies were supposed to be holed up. They held up just outside the hallway and Dirt Diver used a small spy camera to take a peak around the corner. He saw only two guards guarding the doors. He used hand signals to tell his teammates what the plan was.

He used his fingers to do a countdown from three. Once he had reached one he charged forwards with Cool Breeze right behind him. Before the guards knew what was happening each had two holes in their chest and one in their head. The entire team now sprinted for the door. It was a race against the clock because there were security cameras outside so they would be detected in a matter of seconds. The first two operators took up position on either side of the door and were quickly joined by the other two operators, who had already prepared the breaching charges they would use to blow the door wide open. Red Cap and Betty Blue placed the explosives at the right points and took up position behind the other two operators.

Once again, Dirt Diver did a countdown, this time starting at five. At three, the charges detonated. At two a powerful variant of the flash bang was thrown in. at one the flash bang detonated and it was immediately followed by Dirt Diver.

Dirt Diver entered the room first, he immediately turned left. He saw his first target, a guard still dazed by the flash bang. A double tap took care of him as he ran along the wall for the corner. He took out another guard that stood in the way as well as two aides that happened to be standing. He reached the corner in about a second and a half. There he turned around into the room to take out any other targets that were in his area of responsibility. Cool Breeze did the exact same for the right side of the room. Betty Blue and Red Cap entered the room two seconds later and took out any targets they could find from their places at the door.

Once they were sure all the guards were dead they were joined by two other Delta Teams. Together they cuffed their new prisoners and after a minute or two, once they were sure none of them had any weapons on them they proceeded to escort the prisoners to the surface.

At the surface they got some bad news. One of the space hawks had hit a power cable and had crashed. It's crew was safe but the craft would never fly again. This created a problem because together with the sixteen snipers that they were supposed to take with them there simply wasn't enough room aboard the three remaining space hawks, and reinforcements were already underway from a nearby garrison, making it impossible to make two round trips.

"Metal 0-6, this is Dirt Diver, we've got the package and a number of additionals, but we've also lost one hawk and won't be able to take everyone with us. How do you want us to proceed?"

"_Dirt Diver, this is Metal 0-6. You know your orders, bring your men home, that's the priority."_ The reply came back. To an outsider it was unclear what was meant, but for Dirt Diver it wasn't. his orders were to kill or capture the targets and the president himself had been very clear about it, if the targets were in fact killed, it didn't really matter how they were killed.

It wasn't really something Dirt Diver was happy with. True, he was paid to kill the enemies of the Federation and had done his fair share of killing unarmed soldiers, but never people with their hands tied behind their backs. He knew his team was listening in on the transmission and as he looked at them he knew they had accepted what they had to do. They had sixteen prisoners, some were merely aides but were nevertheless part of the regime. The four operators took out their side arms and proceeded to put a bullet in each head.

Once they were done Dirt Diver grabbed a pack of cards from a pocket of his vest and started throwing a card on every minister, he saved the ace for the dictator himself. These cards weren't normal playing cards but actually had the patch of Delta Force on the back. It was a sort of calling card, there to claim the kills and to make sure everyone would knew who had killed them. It was part of the GCTC, at every hit the units responsible would somehow leave a number of cards behind to show why the hit had taken place.

A few minutes later the last of the sniper/recon teams were aboard the Space Hawks, and together with their two escorts they made for the Beckwith. Two hours later, the Beckwith, with the five craft and all the soldiers aboard, fired up its engines and made orbit within minutes. There it entered hyperspace heading for Earth.

The following morning the Alros rebels attacked the capital, without their leadership the security forces surrendered after a few hours of intense fighting. For the next few weeks heavy fighting would occur at random places but eventually the rebels overthrew the government and installed a temporary leadership. They also contacted Earth to petition for protection against any Dominion reprisals and were quickly granted this. The Tau'ri Federation was glad that they had once again, gained another ally in a hard to manage area of the Galaxy, which would help with any further attacks in the region.

**Flag Bridge, TFS Enterprise**

**Hyperspace, near Earth**

**March 1, 2025**

"General Emerson, we're about to exit hyperspace near Lunar orbit." A lieutenant reported.

"Very well, once done send recognition codes to Atlantis and request permission to dock the Task Force."

"Yes sir."

Less than a minute later the Enterprise and her escorts exited hyperspace near the moon. Within five minutes the task force commenced landing procedures, the ships would have a few days in the yards to bang out some of the dents that couldn't be fixed while in space. Emerson, however didn't wait for the ship to land, he had an appointment to make. He had beamed over once the ships had received permission to dock

**War room, Atlantis**

Emerson wasn't the first to arrive. A number of other generals had already arrived. He knew most of them and had served with a number of them. They all stood around waiting for the show to start. Over time other generals arrived as well, though every general was at least a two star general, most were at least a three star general. Over three quarters were part of the space forces and held combat commands in the Milky Way galaxy. There were a few maps around and they all showed the same, Earth's interstellar neighborhood.

"Generals, the President of the Tau'ri Federation, and the Joint Chiefs of Staff." Someone announced. At once everyone stopped talking and came to attention as the president walked in closely followed by the Chiefs. Some other members of the war cabinet also followed not much later.

General Landry, the Commander in Chief for the Milky Way galaxy (CINCMW) stood next to the largest table, it was a holotable. "Mister President, Secretaries, Generals. Today I will specify the plan for the defense of Earth. In recent months rumors have leaked about the Alpha defense line. You all have some advanced knowledge about this, but today you will find out the complete plan for Earth's defense."

It got all the attention from those present. Landry activated the holotable. It showed the interstellar neighborhood. "Ladies and gentlemen. This is our neighborhood. We've got Earth, Epsilon Eridani, Alpha Centauri, 51 Pegasi, Tau Ceti and most important, the Alpha site. Despite that the media already knows the name, they haven't been able to make the connection between the Alpha defense line and the Alpha site. The Alpha site is directly between the Dominion main thrust and Earth, the last major planet between the Dominion and Earth."

"The Alpha defense line is made up of a number of fortified planets. These planets are the Alpha site, GJ 785, HD217107, HD 189733, GJ 777, Mu Arae and Tau Centauri in the outer regions and Procyon, Altair, 61 Virginis, Sirius, Denebola and GJ 1214 in the inner regions. Each planet, or system has its own defenses, mostly defense platforms and mine fields. This is in addition to other, planet specific, defenses. In addition, the fleet will be divided in two and spread between Alderamin and Zosma. When the ships are necessary to aid the defenses the ships will be dispatched from one of these two planets. Each planet has its own fighter and bomber force, and the Alpha site and GJ 1214 have their own drone chairs. The Aurora fleet, as well as the Enterprise, George Hammond and Prometheus Carrier battle groups, and the soon to be operational Henry Hayes, Arizona and Marshall Sumner Carrier battle groups will remain in reserve at Pollux."

"All other planets in the region will either be evacuated or be given fortress strength shields to protect their population. We expect that the Alpha site will be the first planet to be hit and that it will also remain the main focus of the Dominion advance. Eventually they will try to flank us which is when we will have to fight a sort of maneuver war, using the planets as strongholds for our defense. The supreme command for this sub-theater will be carried out from Atlantis, where a number of General officers will take shifts in order to always have someone ready to respond. Final command will be with me, in the field normal rules with regards to same-rank seniority."

"Since the start of the Colonial siege the Dominion have changed their tactics for advancing. Now, instead of moving on until they hit something hard, they make jumps. They advance a number of light years before holding for a few days. During this pause their scouts will recon the space ahead of them and other, slower units will get a chance to catch up as well to make sure their supplies are filled to the brim. Our tactic for the first engagement will be to draw them out and get them involved in a several day long battle. Once their advanced scouts get to the Alpha site they will only find part of its planetary defenses and a small fleet, seemingly having been caught off guard. The Dominion will call in a few battle groups to finish off this easy prey. Unfortunately for them, most of our defenses will be powered down, placed out of sight, or cloaked. Once those battle groups have arrived we will disclose another part of our defenses, making sure we constantly have the upper hand. Assuming the dominion do as the dominion always do they will send in extra forces to face the growing threat. We keep adding forces and keep pulling our damaged ships back for repairs and a recharge before sending them back in. It is my intention to keep the Aurora fleet and the drone chair as a last resort, or when a mother ship arrives." Landry said. The holotable kept up with him showing the numerous units and their intended actions.

"After this battle we think the dominion will keep a respectable distance to lick their wounds and return a few days later. In the meantime we will retreat most of our units as well so they can repair and be ready to counter a possible Dominion flanking action. If we find the space, time and resources we will carry out hit and run attacks on vulnerable positions. In addition, the Free Jaffa have offered to take over more of our obligations elsewhere and the Asgard have indicated that a cataclysmic battle may be imminent in their galaxy. If this battle goes our way we may very well receive reinforcements from the Asgard galaxy as well."

"Finally, we estimate that the Dominion spearhead will reach the Alpha site somewhere in July. In the meantime we will reduce all our attacks on their advance to give them a feeling of safety. Most of the planets between the current Dominion lines and the Alpha site have already been evacuated so we won't have to fight any delaying actions. In the meantime all ships that are assigned to Earth's defense will take turns at a shipyard getting up to the latest standards, for most it will be small stuff so it's nothing to be worried about."

"Does anyone have any questions?"

"Yes." An army general said. "What's the plan for ground combat. I know that Earth has a planet wide shield, but the moon does not, nor do any of the other planets as far as I know."

"True, but all population centers have city wide shields and a defense force. This force should be able to deal with any Dominion attack for a short period of time and can easily be reinforced through the stargate. If the fleet won't be able to regain orbital dominance relatively quick we do have the ability to evacuate through the stargate. In the case of Atlantis such an evacuation would be impossible because we would give up our shipyards. Therefore we have fortified the city and shipyards and constructed additional defenses. We have a force of about 250,000 marines and soldiers, in addition to the normal defense units, ready to defend the city at all costs."

"General Landry, my apologies for interrupting." General Ellison ( Chief of the Space Forces) said. "We have just received a priority message from the Asgard."

"What does it say general?" Ryan asked.

"They request immediate help in the form of fleet support. That cataclysmic battle General Landry just informed us of just started and the Dominion have deployed a large number of smaller craft capable of eluding most weapons fire from the Asgard warships. As you know this is the one weakness for the Asgard and its why we have deployed a large number of 304 and 306 class warships in their support. Unfortunately the Asgard fleet has been caught off guard and our units were unable to join up with the Asgard fleet."

"What are they asking for?" O'Neill asked.

"Mostly carrier support, if possible a squadron of battleships, but their O'Neill II's are quite capable in ship to ship combat."

"Alright, which carrier do we have available? I assume we are going to come to their aid." O'Neill said.

"Sir, They asked for all three CBG's (Carrier Battle Group)." Ellison said. This raised some eyebrows, it wasn't like the Asgard to ask for so much assistance, especially when Earth needs it fleet so much as it does now.

"How long do we have to make a decision?"

"The faster the better sir." Ellison said.

"Alright, two minutes for pro's and con's, in the meantime I want to order sent out for all three CBG's and two battleship squadrons and escorts to prepare for immediate deployment through the Titan jump gates." Ryan said. Immediately several lower ranking personnel that operated the systems in the war room, sent the orders to the relevant units.

"We'll need them in three months, if we lose a carrier we lose part of our firepower." A general suggested.

"But if we destroy the Dominion fleet in the Asgard galaxy we open the way for them to support us and we know how strong their O'Neill II's are."

"Even if we lose a carrier? We only have three of them. Consider the impact on the morale of the soldiers if we were to lose a carrier three months before the battle for Earth. And even if we are successful, what is to guarantee us that the Asgard will dedicate forces to our defense, their track record isn't exactly perfect on that issue."

"You and I both know that the Asgard have always done their best to help us. Those times you refer to were during the replicator wars, we never knew how busy the Asgard fleet was, never mind how large. But during the Wraith siege they were there, in force. Same for the second colonial war and during the punitive campaign against the Vanir and Wraith in the Pegasus galaxy." O'Neill struck out.

"Thank you gentlemen, I have one last question, what's the chance of getting our ships back in time?" Ryan asked.

"The Asgard have their own jump gates, and our carriers and battleships each carry two jump gates, just in case. If a jump gate for some reason wouldn't work it would take the carriers, drone carriers and battleships only two weeks to get back home anyways."

"Okay, General Ellison, deploy the carriers and two battleship squadrons, as well as their respective escort units."

"Yes sir." Ellison said as she pushed a few buttons. "Generals, you have your orders." She said to several generals present, they immediately left for the transporters, they had a flight to catch.

**Flag bridge, TFS Enterprise**

Emerson arrived at the Enterprise's flag bridge in no-time. The crew was rushing to battle stations. The holotable displayed an organized chaos. Ships from all piers and yards at Atlantis and in orbit were rushing for the moon orbiting Jupiter. The Enterprise had been on final approach when the order came in to prepare for immediate deployment so they had aborted their approach and returned to orbit.

"What's the status of the CBG?" Emerson asked as he spotted his XO.

"The Independence and Freedom are on our tails, the rest is less than a minute behind." The XO said. "We also received a message from General Ellison, you will be in command of all units sent to the Asgard."

"Thank you Colonel. Have the Freedom and Independence been able to top off their drone supplies?"

"98 percent full." The XO said after he checked the reports. "Sir what is going on? All I was told is that the Asgard needed our help ASAP and that we should prepare immediately."

"The Dominion seem to have launched an all-out offensive against the Asgard fleet. Unfortunately our forces assigned to the Asgard fleet were out of position and are now unable to provide proper aid in anti-fighter support. As a result the Asgard fleet is outmatched and has requested us for carrier support. The President has decided to deploy all three CBG's and two battleships squadrons."

"Okay, We'll arrive at Titan in about two minutes, do you want us to jump straight away or first form up with the rest of the group?"

"No, we'll jump immediately, deploy all fighters once we've jumped and once the Independence and Freedom have jumped they are to take up covering position between us and the Dominion fleet."

The XO acknowledged and the Enterprise prepared herself for battle. The ship quickly approached one of Titan's jumpgates. Other ships were already making room for the warfleet heading for the gates. The Titan Jump station held nine jumpgates, all connected to a single station which housed the numerous ZPM's required to operate the gates. Despite its size, it wasn't the main base for intergalactic jumps, only when time was an issue it would be used for such jumps. Any planned jumps to either the Pegasus Galaxy, the Asgard galaxy, Midway station, Destiny or any other destination outside the milky way galaxy were performed at the Halo station, near the Galactic core, where it was tied into a black hole for unlimited power.

Once the Enterprise reached the station a short conversation with the station's operators made sure that the coordinates were correct. While this happened the Enterprise came to a halt inside the jump gate which had already powered up. Once done the Enterprise jumped to the Asgard galaxy.

**Asgard Fimbulvetr system**

The Fimbulvetr system was one of cultural and historical importance. Many of the old Asgard believed that if the system were to fall into enemy hands the fate of the Asgard race would be sealed. Already during the replicator wars the system was fought over multiple times. Every time the Asgard had somehow been able to repel the replicator advance. Because of this the Asgard believed the system to be vital to their survival. Therefore, once the Asgard high command had received word that a massive Dominion fleet was underway to the system it had deployed all its available forces to its defense. Unfortunately, when the order was given the Asgard made an unusual mistake. Instead of using its official coordinates as used by all the alliance members they used the planet's historic name and when the Tau'ri general in charge had seen this, he assumed it to be some kind of code for the planet in question. After a minute the database had miraculously cracked the 'code' and most of the Tau'ri fleet made best speed for the wrong planet.

Once the Enterprise arrived they encountered pure destruction. Over a dozen O'Neill class warships were already destroyed, and their remains floating in space. Dozens more ships were also destroyed, mostly Dominion, but also some of the smaller Asgard classes. The Enterprise was the first to arrive. First thing they did was launch their fighters and drone fighters. The vipers and 302's would clear the Asgard formations of Dominion fighters and bombers while the drone fighters would make for the Dominion warships to start harassing them. Once all craft were launched the Enterprise turned away from the battle and moved out of range from the Dominion warships. Eventually she found a safe place behind a cluster of Cylon baseships, bombarding the Dominion forces from a distance.

Despite the fact that the Cylons were exiled and mostly disarmed they had been allowed to rearm once it became clear that the Asgard would have to fight again. Nevertheless, they were under strict supervision of the Asgard to prevent them from turning on the alliance.

Seconds after the arrival of the Enterprise the Freedom and Independence arrived. They too moved back in order to avoid Dominion weapons fire while launching their own weapons from a distance. The other escorts of the carrier took up position near several Asgard warships to free them up for fighting against the larger Dominion warships. Within minutes the George Hammond and Prometheus carrier battle groups arrived and they followed the same routine as the Enterprise did. The fighters were launched, mostly against the Dominion warfleet and the carriers took cover in the rear. At the same time, the two battleship squadrons arrived, they totaled nine battleships and because of the surprise effect were able to flank the Dominion warfleet and did considerable damage before they were forced to either return to the Asgard lines or be surrounded and separated by Dominion battle cruisers.

A hologram of an Asgard suddenly appeared on the flag bridge, it wasn't the old style Asgard nor was it human like, it was something in between, still as thin, but a lot taller and their hands now sported a small fifth finger, not quite developed into something useful, but it had some potential. It had been a while for Emerson to have seen an Asgard so he didn't recognize this one even though Asgard did not look alike anymore, their bodies had become more personal.

"_General Emerson, I am Supreme Commander Thor, thank you for your timely arrival, it is most certainly needed."_ The Asgard said as he made a slight bow and blinked his eyes.

"Supreme Commander Thor, thank you, I've been place in command of the Tau'ri fleet elements here, do you have any specific requests?"

"_Not at the moment, just keep on fighting, together we may destroy this fleet."_

"No doubt about it. Any sign of a Dominion mothership?"

"_There is only one available in this galaxy, the Tau'ri and Colonial fleets have been very good at keeping those away from our galaxy."_

"That's for sure, it has cost us though, let's just hope that our combined fire can take it down quicker than we did at the Colonies, they really took their toll back then."

The hologram looked to the side for a second and said something in Asgard. _"It appears that it is inbound, it will arrive within two minutes."_

"Then we must prepare for it." Emerson said. He turned to someone beside him. "Have Gold flight return to the carrier and receive their mother ship killer load-out." The four crews of Gold Flight were part of less than 200 crews experienced enough to be trusted to take down a mother ship with specialized nuclear packages and to fly the aircraft used for it. "Supreme ommander, your battleships should take up position behind the entry point of the Dominion mother ship, it is lacking weapons there, and if we could take out their engines its stranded here, even if we fail it's still neutralized as a threat to the rest of the galaxy. My ships will be required to aid Gold Flight in their attack run."

"_I shall trust your judgment General Emerson."_

The Asgard warships did not immediately move into their new positions. This was partly because of the damage done to some of the ships, but also because some Asgard did not have faith in the Tau'ri General and had to be convinced by Thor.

Minutes later most ships were in position. Four had lagged behind for no apparent reason. They were too late. The massive hyperspace window generated by the mother ship formed ahead of them. Three impacted the horizon and disappeared, not a trace left. The fourth was hit by the mother ship as it exited hyperspace. The ship exploded in a giant fireball, doing considerable damage to the mother ship. Asgard and Tau'ri warships alike opened fire at will, even while they were still under considerable fire from the other Dominion fleet units. The hyperspace window tried to close but experienced trouble doing this. Blue blots of what looked like lightning sped out to the mother ship, tearing into its aft sections, doing massive damage.

The mother ship seemed out of control. It didn't complete its deceleration and quickly outran Tau'ri and Asgard units and left the battle behind it trailing debris and taking the incidental hit. It made straight for the planet without showing any sign of maneuvering away or decelerating.

On the flag bridge the crew was stunned as screens around them flashed warnings of impending disaster on the planet below. Emerson quickly sought contact with Thor. "Thor, how many people do you have down there?" he didn't wait for an answer and told his second in command to start beaming out anyone who was near the calculated impact zone and whom they could get a lock on.

"_Nearly twenty six thousand in the projected impact zone and another seventy thousand spread out across the planet. There won't be enough room on our ships to house all of them." _Thor stated.

"Emerson turned to one of his lieutenants, "How much drones do our drone carriers have left?"

The answer came back quickly, "An average of 45% sir."

"Thor, we may be able to fit a lot more people aboard our drone carriers, the orders for them to aid in the evacuation will go out momentarily."

"_The Asgard council would be very grateful."_

It was only a matter of minutes before the mother ship would drone carriers came closer to the planet to speed up the evacuation. The Asgard were being beamed into the empty holds of the large ships. There wasn't much to see for them, only the empty racks that once held drones. At first they were disoriented, but soon enough Tau'ri personnel came in to inform the evacuees of their situation. By the time the mother ship entered the atmosphere most Asgard within the direct impact zone had been evacuated.

With its massive size and high speed the mother ship didn't even slow down on its way through the atmosphere. The impact was unlike any ever seen. It shook entire tectonic plates and slammed one against another. Mountains were formed and destroyed in a matter of seconds, deep trenches appeared where plates moved away from the other and lava spewed out of the trenches. It didn't take so long for the mother ship to plow deep enough into the planet before whatever remained of the outer hull started melting. Soon enough the outer hull was fracturing and its inner hull was melting as well. Once the inner hull was failing, the intense heat of the planet's core ripped into the gut of the mother ship, until it reached the core of the ship.

From space it seemed as if a star was born within the planet. Through every hole that was created in the planet's crust a bright white light came up and blinded everyone who looked at it with the naked eye. The planet scattered and debris was spread far and wide. More importantly, a wave of plasma along with debris approached the two fleets dong battle in orbit.

"Lieutenant, can we survive that?" Emerson asked someone.

"We can, yes." He said after some hesitation.

"Have all ships that cannot survive that jump out now and recall all fighters immediately. Copy to the Asgard."

Quickly numerous warships turned away from the battle and entered hyperspace while fighters broke off contact and attempted to return to their carriers before they would be fried by the coming storm. The Dominion fleet had been a bit slower in turning around and jumping to hyperspace. Nearly half the Dominion fleet winked out of existence as they were consumed by the dying planet. Unfortunately several Tau'ri and Asgard warships were also destroyed. Also, nearly thirty percent of the fighter and drone fighter force was destroyed and numerous pilots got hit by dangerous amounts of radiation.

The only ships capable of withstanding the storm were the battleships, carriers and drone carriers as well as O'Neill II class ships. Even so, several ships suffered damage to their hulls as shields neared failing point.

After a minute or so most of the storm had passed, though several large chunks of planet were still flying around at high speed.

"Status report." Emerson ordered.

"Enterprise and Hammond are fine. All drone carriers report light thermal damage to the outer hull, nothing bad. The Prometheus is reporting some damage to its outer hull, they had a localized shield failure, which was quickly covered by backup shield generators. Asgard vessels and battleships report some hull damage, none destroyed or severely damaged. We've lost three battle cruisers and two LCS' to the storm, and another four battle cruisers to the battle itself."

"Show me the Prometheus." Emerson said as he pointed to the main screen. "Any human casualties?" the Prometheus appeared on screen, it quickly zoomed in to the part of the hull that stated its hull number, name and the CBG's motto. Now, only it's motto, _Wings of Freedom,_ was visible.

"Prometheus reports none killed by the storm. We haven't received word from the ships sent away, but an early count estimates nearly 2200 killed, including the crews of the lost battle cruisers and LCS', due to damage aboard other ships and among the pilots."

"Okay, how many Asgard did we safe?"

"We've got about 55,000 aboard. The Asgard are sending us coordinates on where to drop them off."

"Good." The ship suddenly started to tremble and it felt as if the ship dived down steeply. The screen changed to an outside view and it showed a massive part of the planet on a direct course to the ship, it had started to evade it. Normally the steep dive shouldn't be felt because the inertial dampeners would cancel it out, but someone had decided to transfer power from the inertial dampeners to the shields, in case the evasion wasn't successful.

"How about we put some distance between us and this debris field before we get the hell out of here."

"Yes sir." Some lieutenant said.

Seconds later the Tau'ri fleet maneuvered away from the destroyed planet and the Asgard fleet soon followed. Less than an hour later the entire fleet was back at the Asgard home planet and the rescued Asgard were being off loaded and a list of casualties and damage was made up.

A day later the Tau'ri fleet left for home, this time with some friends, eight O'Neill II class warships accompanied the fleet and were to be the first of a number of groups sent to Earth to aid in its defense.

**Hypathia, Tauron**

**March 3**

Since the Dominion advance over four weeks ago, the Tau'ri and Colonial forces had been in constant battle with the Dominion forces. At first, they were able to hold them off at the western bank of the river. After a week of constant battle, all civilians had been evacuated to the eastern side of the city. Meanwhile, engineers, together with civilians, had been building trenches and defensive positions all along the eastern bank of the river and further into the city. Of the original 1.7 million inhabitants, over 1.1 million still remained in the city. The city itself was under sporadic artillery fire from Dominion batteries across the river. Most of the buildings in downtown Hypathia had received some sort of damage, though very few had collapsed because of the artillery fire. However, several buildings were in danger of falling over and were destroyed by engineer units.

Overhead the Tau'ri and Colonial pilots battled daily against the Dominion fighter wings. Meanwhile friendly artillery was pounding Dominion troops everywhere they were discovered. Only a few pockets of resistance remained on the other side of the river and most would be destroyed in a matter of hours, a day at most. One of these pockets was a company of colonial marines cut off at an old metro station. They had been evacuating civilians from the bunkers and collection center located at the metro station when they were cut off by rapidly advancing Dominion forces. Eventually they had managed to evacuate the civilians using trucks driving through the old metro tunnels to the other side of the river, but along the way their defensive position was cut in two and a platoon was cut off a couple hundred feet from the entrance to the metro station.

For over an hour, friendly artillery had been pounding the perimeter in the hope of clearing it of Dominion so that the platoon could evacuate to the metro station. It didn't help. The Dominion kept up the pressure and the platoon could not evacuate their position. Time was of the essence, Dominion artillery was almost done clearing out other pockets and it wouldn't be long before they changed their fire to the metro station and collapse it in on the defenders. two dozen strykers were currently in the tunnels waiting for the marines to mount up for evacuation. The local commander however, refused to leave until either the cut off platoon was rescued, or destroyed.

"Sir." A marine said as he stopped near the CO, a captain.

"What is it son?" the Captain asked as his attention was diverted to the marine.

"Sir, I grew up a couple blocks away from here."

"I'm sorry to hear that, your family make it out alive?"

"Yes sir, but that wasn't what I was talking about."

"Well spill it already!"

"Sir, that metro line runs all the way to Colossus street, and it passes straight underneath the school where third platoon is housing in."

"Are you sure?" the Captain asked as he got what the marine was trying to tell him.

"Yes sir, every time a metro passed the windows would shake, up to the day that line was closed. There was a ventilation shaft in the courtyard."

"Excellent son." The captain said as he yelled to a lieutenant to get over to him. "Listen to this marine, take a squad and get our guys out."

The lieutenant quickly complied and a minute later six strykers moved into one of the tunnels to evacuate the platoon.

Inside the tunnel the strykers were moving in single file. Once they reached the shaft they radioed the platoon to come down. Immediately they started rappelling down. Half way through the Dominion caught up and entered the tunnel at the next station. They made their way down the tunnel and were greeted by the mounted mk. 19 which was sending grenades down the tunnel. Meanwhile the rearmost vehicle was the first to be loaded and had could return to the station, it had to reverse all the way because it was too narrow to turn around. The vehicle turned around at the station and entered one of the other tunnels back to friendly lines.

Inside the tunnel a heavy firefight had broken out as Dominion forces attempted to advance on the strykers. They were held back by the firepower put out by the strykers but one by one the strykers were filled and retreated to the station. Meanwhile the troops at the station also embarked their strykers for an evac.

As the last of the soldiers from the cut off platoon made it to the strykers, the two remaining strykers started backing up. The most forward one exploded as it was hit by a large caliber plasma weapon. The other stryker didn't have the chance to stop and search for survivors. Once they reached the station they turned around and chased after the rear lights of the other strykers, everyone else had already left the station. Minutes later a massive artillery strike landed atop the metro station, it destroyed everything and just to be sure the engineers blew a hole in the ceiling of the tunnels that ran under the river, flooding them with water.

The battle for West Hypathia was over, had the allies lost? Perhaps, but once again they never meant to hold the city and were able to evacuate most of the civilians and most troops could make an orderly withdrawal to the eastern side of the city. One thing was sure, the Battle for East Hypathia would be bigger, nastier and deadlier, and would be one of the most important battles on Tauron since the second Colonial-Cylon war.

**Okay, that's it for now. i'll be uploading a new story in a few days, its a spin-off to the alliance wars.**


	17. Chapter 16

**its been a while, next chapter is already half way done, though it might take a while to finish, anyways enjoy!  
**

**thanks to Rudy Pena and just a crazy man for the beta  
**

**Traveler vessel**

**Near the remnants of M7R-227**

**March 8, 2025**

The traveler vessel exited hyperspace over the remnants of the destroyed planet. Though the ship had received numerous upgrades the ship's looks hadn't changed much since it had first appeared in orbit over Atlantis. Its commander hadn't changed much either. As she walked onto the bridge several crewmembers greeted her.

"Commander, we have reached our destination. I have established a stable orbit over a planet on the outskirts of the system."

"Good, commence a thorough scan of the system. The Tau'ri sensors monitoring the area picked up a faint contact that disappeared near this system. Considering the history of this place, the Tau'ri want to know what it was."

"Yes commander." Someone said.

"The planet was destroyed right? We were all there, and Sheppard has said so many times." One of the older crewmembers said.

"It was, there's nothing left of the planet. Only bits and pieces here and there. Most of the asteroids around here are from the moons and other planets that were nearer to the planet when it exploded." The commander said.

"Scanning has commenced, a full scan will take about an hour."

"Very well, let's settle in for the time being."

About forty minutes later the scan was finally returning something useful.

"Commander, we are detecting a ship within the asteroid field."

"Can you identify it?"

"Redirecting sensors for an ID."

"The contact is changing course. It's coming for us!"

"Raise shields, arm weapons. Power up the hyperdrive and prepare a jump to the nearest outpost, let's be ready to bug out."

"We've got an ID, it's an ancestral ship!"

"This can't be a coincidence."

"They've powered shields and armed weapons!" someone said. "They're launching drones! Fifty seconds to impact!"

"Get us into hyperspace, now!"

Seconds later the ship came about and entered hyperspace.

**In hyperspace**

"Prepare to send a data package to midway, and get me Larrin."

A minute later Larrin's face was shown on the forward screen.

"Larrin, Katana here. We've just encountered a potentially massive problem."

"_What is it?"_

"We'll be sending you the logs soon. Midway sent us to check out a sensor return one of the hyperspace satellites picked up near M7R-227. When we arrived we commenced a scan of the system. After a while we got a sensor return and when we directed more sensors to identify the contact it started moving. We quickly got a hit, it was an ancestral warship. It opened fire and we jumped out."

"_This is troubling news. Where are you going now?"_

"We've set course for a nearby outpost, I believe it's run by the Genii."

"_No need, get to the nearest stargate and gate to the midway station, your ship can follow through hyperspace. I'll get things started here."_

**Midway station**

Larrin let her breath out once the connection was severed. She closed her eyes a moment and recounted the last time she had been at M7R-227, and the losses they had taken then. She stood up and walked out of her office. She took a left at the end of the corridor, a right after a few meters and busted through a door at the end of the corridor. A secretary stood up in shock and surprise.

"Is he in?" she asked as she walked towards a door to the side.

"Commander you can't go in there right now, he's on the line with…" she couldn't finish her sentence because Larrin simply walked through the door.

"Sheppard." Larrin said as the CINCPEGCOM turned away from a screen in surprise of the person busting into his office.

"I'm sorry general she just walked through." The secretary said as she had followed Larrin in.

"It's alright Nancy." Shepperd said as he waved her of.

"General Carter, would you mind if I'd call you back later?" Sheppard said as he faced to the screen which showed general Carter in her own office somewhere in the Milky way Galaxy.

"_Sure thing John, I've got Rodney waiting on the other line anyways."_

"Okay, thanks, give Rodney my regards."

_Will do, see ya later."_ Sam said before the connection was terminated.

"What's up Larrin?" Sheppard asked.

"Katana's ship just encountered a hostile ancestral warship at M7R-227. They bugged out before they had taken any damage, but they were fired upon with drones."

"An Aurora class warship?" Shepperd said. Larrin nodded. "At M7R-227? As in Asuras?" Larrin just nodded harder. "Crap." He walked to a nearby window and looked out over the station, in particular to the docks where a number of warships were anchored. He looked at them for a moment and then returned to his desk. He pushed a button on his desk. "Nancy, I want my staff readied in the situation room, have General Flannigan report there as well, and have Generals O'Neill and Ellison on the line. Say five minutes."

"_Yes sir."_ The reply came.

"Walk with me." Sheppard said to Larrin. Together they walked to the situation room where they arrived a couple minutes later. A couple of the staff were already there.

"General, we just received a report from a commander Labreya, a traveler. It suggests that an aurora warship was spotted near Asuras." A Colonel said as he stepped up to Sheppard. "Personally, sir, I'd suggest tighter drug controls 'cos I don't know what they've been smoking over there, but it must be some strong shit sir."

"Well, I have to disagree with you on that Colonel. You know Larrin." Sheppard said. "And I want to know what happened at Asuras." Sheppard looked over as General Flannigan walked in. "And I want general Flannigan to go investigate."

"Sir, investigate what?" Flannigan asked.

"A Traveler ship discovered an Aurora class warship near Asuras, and when they scanned it they were attacked with drones. They managed to get out without any damage though."

"You're thinking replicators might be back?"

"Perhaps, I don't want to take any chances. I'll send a light battle squadron. Your ship, the TFS Bellerophon will be in command, take three or four battle cruisers from the piers here and use the jumpgate to get to Asuras ASAP." The Bellerophon was one of four battleships assigned to the Pegasus Galaxy theatre of operations.

"Yes sir, anything else?"

"Good luck, happy hunting."

"Thank you sir." General Flannigan said as he walked out.

"General Sheppard, I have Generals O'Neill and Ellison." A coms specialist said.

"Good, put them up." Both Generals were on the same screen. "Generals." He said, the other two responded in kind.

"_What've you got Sheppard?"_ O'Neill asked.

"A Traveler ship encountered an Aurora warship. Here's the kicker, it was at Asuras and it opened fire once it was detected."

"_Replicators?" _Ellison asked.

"Perhaps, the travelers didn't hang around to find out. I'm sending the Bellerophon and a few 304's to investigate. In the meantime, I'd like to know what kind of reinforcements I should be expecting if this thing turns out to be Replicators?"

"_Nearly the entire fleet is currently receiving final upgrades before the Dominion arrive, and once that's done they'll go into the reserves."_ Ellison said.

"_I will put in a call to the Alliance, perhaps some of them can put in some ships. If I were you I wouldn't hold my breath though."_

"Yeah, expected as much. You'll tell the president?"

"_Yeah, will do, perhaps he has a bright idea."_ O'Neill said.

"Okay, thanks. Sheppard out."

"Bellerophon is pushing off." Someone reported. "Bellerophon, you and task force are cleared for immediate jumpgate departure."

A screen showed the progress of the Bellerophon and its three escorting battle cruisers. Within minutes all four ships had formed up at the jumpgates, and simultaneously, jumped to Asuras.

**CIC, TFS Bellerophon**

"All four ships present and accounted for, no damage."

"All ships sound tactical alert. I want to be ready to shoot back the moment we come under fire." General Flannigan ordered. "Commence a thorough scan of the system, start where the Travelers found that ship."

"Sir, we're detecting an incoming hyperspace window." Someone announced.

"Size?"

"Medium sized, could be an Aurora."

"Change course to intercept. Be ready to return fire."

"A ship has exited hyperspace, power readings suggest a ZPM powered Aurora."

"On screen."

"They're scanning us."

"Go active on ECM. Don't let them get a read on us."

"We're jamming them, they can't scan us."

"Excellent, hail them."

"Unidentified vessel, this is the Tau'ri Federation ship Bellerophon, please identify yourselves." Flannigan said. He turned to an officer at his side. "If we get a response I need you to run it through visual and audio recognition software, perhaps we can get a hit."

"_Whom we are is of no concern to you, all you need to know is that this region of space is our territory and that you have one minute to leave."_

The screen that had shown the arrival of the Aurora was split in two as the audio recognition programs of the ship started their magic on the voice. Within seconds it had a hit. A picture of the owner of the voice appeared on screen.

"The thing is, a couple of years ago, some friends of ours, blew up a planet here. And just a couple of hours ago, some more friends of us, were here for a casual inspection of the system, when they were suddenly and deliberately attacked by an unknown force, using the same type of ship as you use. The reason we blew this planet up, was because there was this very evil race living on it. But I think you already know this don't you, Oberoth?"

They waited a while but nothing was coming back. "I wish I could see the face of that fat bastard."

"Sir the ship is moving again, they're coming closer, but not very fast."

"Probably stalling for reinforcements." Flannigan said as he thought it over.

"Sir should we open fire?"

"We can't, the ROE say we can't attack a ship that isn't presenting a clear and present danger to us or any innocent parties nearby, for all we know that is just a split off faction of the Asurans who mean us no harm, or perhaps aliens who use Oberoth's voice to communicate with us. There's a whole host of possibilities." Flannigan said, though he didn't sound so convinced. "Get me General Sheppard."

Seconds later Sheppard was on the line. He must have been waiting for a call with some news.

"Sir, we've encountered an Aurora but it hasn't opened fire yet, nor has it powered weapons. I just had a brief conversation with someone from the other ship, they wouldn't tell me whom they were, but they did claim this system was theirs, and we have a voice match on Oberoth. Right now they're moving closer, but at a slow speed."

"_I see, they're probably waiting for reinforcements."_ Sheppard responded.

"My guess exactly, I called to ask for a change in the ROE, because they don't present a danger to us at the moment the ROE won't allow me to open fire."

"_I see, what's the worst case scenario?"_

"Well, we could be opening fire on a ship crewed by aliens who are using Oberoth's voice to communicate with us."

"_That would be bad. Alright. Send a hostile challenge and if they don't respond favorably you are authorized to open fire, disable the ship and board it if possible."_

"Yes sir, Bellerophon out."

"Well that clears things up." Flannigan said. "Hail them again."

"Unidentified vessel, this is the TFS Bellerophon, identify yourselves or be considered hostile."

"No response sir." A lieutenant reported.

"Unidentified vessel, this is the TFS Bellerophon, identify yourselves or be considered hostile, this is your last warning."

"Anything?"

"Nothing sir."

"Alright, Bellerophon to task force, we are moving in to board the ship, only fire if they do not cooperate, and only to disable."

The ships started moving towards the lone Aurora.

"Unidentified vessel, this is the TFS Bellerophon, cut your engines, lower your shields, power down your weapons and prepare to be boarded, if you do not comply you will be fired upon."

The task force moved closer so they could more carefully aim for their targets. Once in range, the powerful weapons of the Bellerophon pounded away to try and break the Aurora's shields, which were a tough nut to crack. Quickly orders were given for the battle cruisers to open fire at different sectors of the shields to overpower them and bring them down quickly. It worked and the shields were already showing signs of weakening. Unfortunately, the general's suspicions were right. Two aurora's and five smaller types exited hyperspace within firing distance of the task force, and seconds later the arrivals and the already present Aurora opened fire.

"Shields are at 95 percent! Shields are holding against the drones for now!"

"Return fire at will, shoot to kill."

Immediately, the main weapons of the Bellerophon bundled their power to target the first Aurora. Three turrets combined their powerful beams into one massive unstoppable beam. The targeted Aurora didn't stand a chance. Though its shields flared brightly for a second or two, they eventually failed. They were overwhelmed by the sheer amount of power forced into one tight spot. Once the beam was past the shields, the hull was cut into like a hot knife through butter. Within seconds the first Aurora was history.

Stunned by their early defeat the aggressors turned tails and ran for hyperspace. One of the smaller ones was quickly taken out by the 304's ganging up on it. Within moments the two remaining Aurora's jumped into hyperspace, quickly followed by three of the smaller types, leaving only one.

"Take that last ship! Disable its hyperdrives, don't let it escape!" Flannigan said.

It only took a few seconds for the Bellerophon to destroy the smaller ship's hyperdrives and render it virtually dead.

"Let's get a boarding party ready. Use railguns to target weapons and shields, as well as other means that could be used against us." Flannigan ordered.

**1****st**** Tau'ri Federation Army HQ, NOS, Caprica**

**March 9**

Since the invasion of Caprica by Dominion forces, the 1st Army had done well. The perimeter around Nos was holding, despite valiant attempts by the Dominion to break through. In the east, the Marines of the first Marine Corps had taken two old defensive lines and made something from it that had held the Dominion back without much trouble. To the South and west the terrain was more or less plains with some forests here and there. The infantry divisions deployed there had also built up defensive fortifications and were using rivers and higher ground for additional defense. Once in a while, the First Team (1st Cavalry Division) used the area in front of the MLR (Main Line of Resistance) as its personal maneuver training ground. Once I a while they were let loose and they turned the area into a slaughterhouse, especially when the Dominion were just in the process of attacking.

In recent days, the Dominion attacks had been getting more and more serious again. But this time it was different. The artillery strikes were much better placed and the attacks were also better coordinated between separate units. The support of Dominion ground attacks had become better, their logistics had improved as well as their ability to quickly deploy forces into attacking position, leaving only a small period of time for the Tau'ri to prepare for an attack.

Today, the Dominion had started the fourth day of constant attacks. So far, most attacks were concentrated in the south, the terrain was just a bit more favorable for preparing an attack then in the west, where there was the always present risk of a Cavalry sweep.

Lieutenant General Tom Parker, CO of the 1st Army was pacing up and down the command center. For days his soldiers had been under constant attack, and no matter what he had done, they would not stop. He had bombed every possible supply route into the area into oblivion, going even so far as to have a low yield nuke detonated at the nearest Dominion supply station. Nothing helped. In fact, the attacks got worse and worse. For months, his artillery had been left untouched by Dominion artillery, now, without warning, the Dominion had tracked, and destroyed nearly a dozen artillery batteries. Fortunately he had enough in reserve, the Tau'ri army had found out it was much easier and cheaper to fire a dozen HE grenades from twenty miles, than to send in a company of soldiers to stop a Dominion attack. Now the artillery had to _'shoot and scoot'_ in order to survive. Not that it wasn't something they weren't trained for, or weren't prepared for, but it just took a couple of minutes to pack up, drive on, and unpack again, and those minutes were minutes when they couldn't support the troops.

One of the aides had been working with several batteries, playing a game of cat and mouse, trying to destroy the Dominion artillery emplacements, while keeping their own safe. Unfortunately the Dominion seemed to have caught on to the Tau'ri's tactics of _'shoot and scoot'_ and had adopted it with some success.

"Sir, you've got to hear this." Someone said as he held up a headphone.

The general told the man to put it on the overhead.

"…_Goddamnit asshole, don't argue with me, just blanket the area!"_ someone's voice boomed through the overhead speakers.

"Who's that?"

"The CO of 1st battalion, first marines. They're under heavy attack and being overrun as we speak." A colonel said. "Sector 24." He added as he saw the general searching for it on the holographic table.

"How'd that happen?"

"They came out of nowhere, completely surprised the marines and many posts were overrun. What's worse, is that sector 24…"

"Sector 24 contains one of the few access roads to the city. I know."

"_Echo five give specific target date."_

"_God damnit motherfucker, we're getting overrun here, blanket the entire sector, air burst, we're getting overrun, drop 'em on our heads! NOW!"_

Finally a positive response was given and apparently seconds later the first rounds started to drop.

"Get me UAV visuals."

Quickly a tech pulled up a feed from one of the airborne UAV's. numerous rounds were still impacting the area and dirt and body parts alike were thrown around, though it wasn't clear if they were human or Dominion.

Eventually, the artillery fire died down. Immediately, the shooting on the ground started again and the Dominion were on the attack again. The Marines defending the area came out of their bunkers and returned fire from the trenches that had long ago been dug out and reinforced with wood and concrete. Because of the intense artillery bombardment right on their heads, they had all been forced to take cover and once it was over they weren't in position straight away. The Dominion made use of it. Within minutes they had troops within the trenches and were making their way to some of the bunkers. Reserves were already underway, a battalion was 5 minutes out, they were coming in by spacehawk from the second defense line. It seemed as if they wouldn't be on time, not for every bunker anyways.

One of the bunkers had fallen. Dominion forces were pouring in through the hole that was created. A Dominion aircraft arrived. The Dominion loaded some people in and the craft returned to the Dominion lines. Mere minutes later the reinforcements arrived and reestablished the front line.

**Sometime later**

**Somewhere Dominion**

Lieutenant Colonel Mia Lundstrum slowly awoke. She looked around, scanning her surroundings. she had no idea where exactly she was, except for a Dominion cell, so she guessed. She had no memories on how she got there. The last thing she remembered calling in an artillery strike on their position, she must have been knocked out by a nearby blast. What she didn't understand was how she got to be in a Dominion cell, or something alike. The Dominion weren't exactly known for taking care of their own wounded, let alone those of their enemies. The lighting was abysmal and she couldn't figure out where the door was, if there was one at all. She'd be really pissed if this was some kind of Dominion torture, 'stick 'em in a hole they'll never get out of and let them die a slow and unpleasant death'. She patted herself down to see what she had on her and if she was somehow injured. She found nothing useful, just a lighter and some smokes, that would at least make her suffering a bit more bearable.

She lit up a cigarette. There wasn't much else for her to do, not unless someone showed up or she died. She walked around the cell, she touched the walls trying to find a clue to a possible door. She went over the recent events. She had called in an artillery barrage on her position. It had taken several attempts to get the REMF on the other end to fire danger close, but finally he had budged. That danger close must've knocked her out cold. In the meantime the Dominion had probably resumed their attack and overrun the marines' defenses. They must've cleared the bunker, probably killed everyone else who could resist and have taken her, and possible others into captivity.

But why? Why she didn't know. Of course, she was a colonel, but it's not like the Dominion had ever shown any interest in gathering intelligence from prisoners. From what she had heard and read, anyone who was unfortunate enough to get captured was worked to death on a Dominion run slave labor planet. All questions she couldn't answer, and probably never would get an answer for. She was stuck on wherever she was, probable still Caprica, though for all she knew they could be in space.

She thought of back home, to her house, her two sons and her husband. Her husband was with the Free Jaffa, serving as a military advisor to their military. In the meantime her sons were with her in-laws on earth, probably the safest place right now. She thought about her friends, how many must've been killed by now. Most were marines, she knew of a number that had died, some she had actually seen dying. This war was the worst of all she had gone through, from her first deployment to Iraq all through the Vanir, Cylon, Wraith and Aschen wars. In the end, all those previous wars had caused less than half the losses among her friends.

This sucked. If she was going to die, she'd rather die fighting, instead of being tortured to death or executed. The waiting was killing her, she kept thinking back to her family, to her marines, some of whom would certainly be dead now. Her XO, who, if he was still alive, would now be taking care of the battalion.

She stopped pacing. She thought she had felt a shock going through the cell. She placed her hand on one of the walls. She could feel the walls tremble slightly. Either there was an artillery strike nearby, which would mean they were still close to the front lines, or the shock she had just felt was a jump into hyperspace, and the ship she was on was moving through hyperspace, god knows where to.

Some divine wisdom would be useful right around now, perhaps an ascended giving some cryptic clue. Something at all would be welcome.

Without warning, a wall disappeared. It revealed a badly lit corridor, a tall being walked through and the wall reappeared again.

"Who the fuck are you?" she asked almost spitting the words out.

"In your military I would be a three star general." The Dominion said. He clearly was a Dominion, even though the lighting was bad, she could still make out the green skin color on his face and hands. "My name is too hard to pronounce in your language, and not really important."

"So what do you want me for?"

"I'll come to that in a minute." The General said. Out of nowhere two metal chairs appeared. "Sit, please. Smoke another cigarette if you'd like."

She looked him over once again, this was not what she'd expected from an initial interrogation by an enemy like the Dominion. She half expected a question she wouldn't know the answer to followed by a round to the chest or head. She took the seat, though she remained on her guard.

"You might be wondering why you're still alive, or not in some labor camp?"

"It had crossed my mind, yeah."

"The reason is that I need you."

"Yeah? What for? If you think I'll be your little pet, or sex slave or something, you might as well get it over with and kill me now."

"No, that's not what you're here for. From my colleagues I've gathered that the females of this galaxy, especially those of the Tau'ri and Colonials, are much to feisty for such work anyways." The Dominion said as he took a seat opposite her. "That's not what I'm here for either."

"So you're just here for the regular extermination of innocent beings, committing of war crimes on a massive scale?"

"That depends."

"I'll bite. On what?"

"You. And your leaders of course." He said with a grin. "Let me explain. As I told you earlier I am a three star general within the Dominion army. I am the commander of the fourth Guards Shock army. My unit recently arrived in this galaxy and is set to commence fighting on the Colonial planet of Tauron soon. I believe some of my colleagues with the Guards have already introduced themselves there. Please let me explain the difference between Guards and regular units. Us guards are professional soldiers, full time as you call it. The regular units are mere draftees, they rarely get into a real fight, but when they do, well, you've been fighting them ever since our military entered this part of the universe. The regular forces fight for the Dominion as a whole, but the Guards fight for the Emperor, we are better trained and equipped."

"What happened when the races here started fighting back, is that you got the personal attention of the Emperor, and he's furious, but on the other hand, he's also impressed."

"Lucky us." She mocked him.

"Yes, indeed you are." The Dominion said. "And he is willing to forgive you, all of you."

"What's the catch?"

"The emperor has seen fit to offer a letter of pardon to not just the Tau'ri, but also the Asgard, the Colonials, the Free Jaffa, the Pegasus Alliance and all members of the Great Alliance out of Heliopolis, but at the condition that all lay down their arms, and accept total leadership of the Dominion. You will be allowed to keep your own formations, and have some sort of freedom. But you will be required to supply units to the Dominion war machine."

"Are you on drugs or something?" she asked in disbelieve.

"As in a narcotic? No, I have no such addictions, nor any prescribed medicine at the moment." He responded dryly.

"Why in the world would you expect us to surrender to you? We've been doing fine fighting you off."

"So we can see." He said as he raised his hands to indicate their surroundings.

"A personal setback perhaps, but I am not the Federation. It will live on in my absence."

"At any rate, back to your original question." He said as he stood up again. "I need you to introduce me to your leaders. We'll be dropping out of hyperspace soon, near a planet you call Alpha site. I suggest you follow me to the bridge, from there we can hail your people."

"What!?" she was stunned. The wall had again disappeared and the general walked out without waiting for her. While on her guard for any tricks she followed him. She kept looking around for anything to use as a weapon. If what he had told her was true, taking him out would be something worth dying for.

After a few corners she saw a loose pipe lying on the ground. Before she could stop to pick it up he spoke again.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you."

"Do what?" she asked innocently.

"Picking up that pipe and killing me with it of course." He said as he turned around, he was grinning at her. "There are about a hundred thousand of your POW's waiting in a nearby system. If I return, no matter what your response, they will be turned over to your forces. If you kill me, or keep me a prisoner, they will be executed. I hope you will relay that message to your people as well."

"You some psychic or something?"

"No, just common sense I guess."

"So say this isn't some elaborate ruse to get something out of me, how do you want to proceed from here on? What about the crew of this ship for example?"

"There is no crew. This is one of the oldest ships I could find, its type isn't in use anymore." He said as he started walking again. "In a few minutes we will exit hyperspace some distance from your Alpha site. We will be in range of sensors and communications so they will see us. I assume your forces there will immediately converge on our position, trying to destroy us. What I need you for is to talk to them, convince them that we mean to talk with them and are there under a banner of truce as you call it."

"And from there on?"

"Well that depends on the reaction of your fleet there." Meanwhile they had reached what was supposed to be the bridge. "We'll go along with whatever your fleet asks of us. I assume they will beam us out, take the ship and take it apart. They will probably debrief us and that will probably be when our paths will separate."

"One final question, why me? You could've taken anyone from those hundred thousand POW's you claim to have, but you chose me instead."

"Simple, you've been captured less than a day ago, some of those prisoners have been in our custody for months. It would be reasonable for your people to mistrust them, for all they know we could have tampered with them, somehow manipulate them or something."

"I see."

"Are you ready?"

"As ready as I'll ever be." She said.

Seconds later the ship exited hyperspace. Fortunately they were far enough away from any defenses, that she could see anyways, and the CAP was on the other side of the system at the moment.

"Can you open a channel for me? Just make sure its limited to the ships that are heading for us, but in an open, unencrypted frequency." She said.

After a second or two she received a nod from him.

"Tau'ri vessels, this is Lieutenant Colonel Mia Lundstrum, TF marines, first of the first marines. I am here with a representative of the Dominion leadership. He wishes to convey a message to our leadership. Please hold fire, we are not a threat to you." She said. "That should raise some eyebrows."

"It has." He simply said. "We are being hailed on a secured frequency, it's from one of your ships."

"Do you have a screen we can put that on?"

She received a nod and seconds later a projection of the other commander appeared in the middle of the bridge.

"_This is commander Brown of the TFS Century, please confirm identity."_

"ID is: TFM0619472F0Z, authentication code is Lima, Tango, Charlie, Tango, Foxtrot, Mike, brake, Echo, Zero, Six, Mike, Lima."

"_That code is marked as MIA/KIA."_

"That would be MIA, though not anymore." She said. "Commander, I was recently captured by the Dominion military on Caprica, now they want me to help deliver a message. We'll be lowering shields and cutting power so you can board us or beam us over, there should only be two life sings, me and the Dominion representative." She said with a nod to the Dominion.

"_Hold one."_

"Should you not have mentioned the one hundred thousand prisoners and their fate, should anything happen to me?"

"That would be too tempting, they would see it as a ploy to something, and not believe it."

"So what do we do now?" he asked as he walked around a bit. He seemed a bit nervous, which surprised her.

"We wait. I think we scared some people to death with our message, and they're probably waiting for orders from above." She replied. He walked around a bit more and patted his uniform again, to make sure it was clean and proper. "It'll probably take a few minutes for someone with real power to give an order. They'll probably beam some spec ops aboard to take us in. those soldiers would need to dress up and get ready first. So I guess, no more than, say, ten minutes."

"You don't have troops ready to fight here? So close to the front line? With our forces drawing nearer every day?"

"I'm not gonna talk readiness with you, not that I'd know anything about the grand strategic plan of the alliance anyways."

"Liar. But it was worth a shot." He said.

"So, why are you here?"

"Because the Emperor asked me, and it is my duty to do all he asks of me." He said matter of fact.

"But I mean you, why you? There must be enough people in your Guard, why risk a general if you could just send a private or something with a recorded message?"

"To add weight to the message. Would you believe a private with that message? Besides, it was convenient. When the Emperor made the decision I happened to be in the neighborhood. I was slated to leave for the front in a few days."

"How old are you?"

"Excuse me?" he asked.

"Well, from what we know about your race, you won't die naturally and could be millions of years old."

"hm. In your years, I'd be coming up on ten thousand." He said. "But most of us do not live to make it into the million years. Far from it. Only some of the Emperor's family, as well as the Emperor himself. He is the oldest Dominion alive."

Suddenly the room seemed to explode as loud noise and a bright light filled the bridge. By the time they recovered they were both on the ground, being tied up by unknown persons. Once their hands were tied and bags were pulled over their heads they were beamed to somewhere else.

Minutes later, and after being dragged through several corridors she was deposited on the ground somewhere. The bag was pulled off her head and she could finally look around. She couldn't really see much, the walls seemed to be giving bright white light. Or perhaps her eyes were just adjusting to the brightness.

Two strong hands helped her up. "Colonel," a disembodied voice said, "Decontamination," the voice said as an arm pointed to an open door, "undress, you know the drill." They said as her hands were cut loose. The hands let go of her and she brought them back so she could see them. She felt her wrists which had gotten sore of the restraints. She looked around and saw two persons standing in the corners behind her. Both were clad in dark clothes, they resembled NBC suits, but just a bit different. They were also wearing gasmasks, and, of course both had a rifle in their hands.

On their upper arms she saw a patch. a red spearhead, with a black dagger over it, and a black tab with AIRBORNE in red letter over it. These dudes were Delta Force.

As they didn't move she assumed they wouldn't leave until she had gone through decontamination. So she started to undress. She took off everything and stood up. She walked to the decontamination area. Once she was through the door the two operators closed the door behind her and, through a panel on the wall, instructions were issued.

First she was sprayed down with some liquid and later dried, the process was repeated a few times. In the meantime she had to give a blood sample and several questions were asked. She was also scanned a couple of times.

After about 25 minutes she was done and was sent through a door to the next room. Here she found some clothes over a chair which she was told to put on. It reminded her of a MARPAT uniform, except for the blouse to put over her shirt, which wasn't there.

The moment she was done two soldiers walked through the door, this time they didn't carry rifles, just a sidearm at their thighs. Both were sergeants, and both were with Delta Force. "Please come with us ma'am." She complied and they led her to another room, there she was beamed to somewhere else, from where she was led to another room. This one was brightly lit and it had a table with three chairs.

"Please sit." The tall black one said. Once she was seated both of them took the other seats.

"Hi there." She said. She wasn't expecting much, but you never knew.

After a few seconds of blank expressionless staring the tall one started talking. "Hi, I'm sergeant White."

"And let me guess, you're sergeant Black?" she asked the other guy, he was caucasian.

"No, I'm sergeant Brown, why would you think I'm sergeant Black?" he asked dead serious.

"Sorry." She stammered.

"Nah, I'm just messing with ya. For the purpose of this meeting you can call me sergeant Black." He said as he cracked a wide grin.

"Then call me Lieutenant Colonel Lundstrum." She said.

"Mia it is then." Black said.

"So Mia, what the fuck happened?" White asked.

"Come again?" she asked them.

"What, the, Fuck, happened?" black repeated slowly. "You've got a hearing problem I'm not aware of?"

"I got knocked out by an artillery strike, when I woke up I was aboard that Dominion ship."

"Yeah, about that." White said. "You called in a danger close strike on your head. What the fuck?"

"That was fucking stupid if you'd ask me." Black replied. They looked at each other and shook their heads. "Damn stupid." Both said simultaneously.

"We were being overrun, we had Dominion forces about to enter the trenches. It was a last ditch effort to hold the line." She responded.

"A bad one at that." Black said sarcastically.

"And you failed to boot." White added.

"Hey!, are you two going to be this way for the entire duration?" She burst out.

"What? Us?" White asked with an innocent face.

"We're just babysitting you while we wait for the Generals." Black said.

"We're both just interested parties, trying to get some information." White explained.

"I'd almost think the two of you were twins." She said.

"Well… you know what William said." Black said.

"We few, we happy few…" White continued.

"We band of brothers." Black finished

She thought about it for a few seconds. "Shakespeare. True." There was a bit of silence. "So… Why's Delta Force doing the security on this place?"

"Can't say… yet. You'll find out."

"Yes you will." A hoarse but still formidable voice said. All three rose immediately.

"General Ferrando." Lundstrum said as she saluted.

Ferrando returned the salute. "General Mattis will be in shortly." Ferrando announced. He walked over the two sergeants and both immediately stood up. Ferrando deposited the file he was carrying on the desk before taking a seat. "So, the word is, you are who you say you are." Ferrando waited a second. "Surprised?"

"Not really."

"Thought so. Maybe this will." He said as he got something from a pocket. "You're promoted."

"Sir?"

"You've been promoted to a full bird. They need you at Tauron."

"12th MEU? What happened to its commander?" Lundstrum asked after thinking it over once.

"Got KIA yesterday. There are some doubts about the XO's combat qualities."

"And you just found that out? Half the Corps knows that already."

"We've been trying to rectify that mistake for a while, but it wasn't on such a high priority since he was just an XO."

"When do I leave?" Lundstrum asked eagerly."

"Take it easy, not until we've debriefed you. We've already got your new XO there, he'll keep guard until you're done here."

"Who's it?" she asked.

"A Major Ter Wiel, formerly Dutch marines, served with the fifth marines during the Aschen war, highly distinguished."

Lundstrum tried to remember the name but failed. "Never heard of him. But fifth marines did get in some nasty fights back then."

"True, true." Ferrando said. "How bout we get started." He said as General Mattis walked in and took the other seat. "So tell us what happened."

"We were under attack, the Dominion were pushing…" she started but was cut off.

"We know that part already, we saw the UAV feed and heard the radio calls. How 'bout you skip to the part after you are taken from the bunker."

"Okay. I don't know what time it was, or where we were, but I woke up aboard that Dominion ship. I was in a prison cell. After a while the General came in."

"Come again? General?"

"Yes, that's what he introduced himself as, a three star general. He didn't give me a name, just a comparative rank."

"Okay, continue."

"Well, we got to talking a bit, it kind of surprised me to be honest. And then he floated a proposal."

Both generals leaned forwards a bit.

"Peace. He has an offer of pardon from their emperor. The alliance would become a sort of semi-independent puppet regime to the Dominion and we would have to supply troops to their cause."

"Why?" Mattis asked.

"Because we've been inflicting massive casualties. So much, that they are deploying their elite units, Guards he called them. Apparently we've encountered a few of 'em at the Colonies."

"We've had such suspicions for a while." Ferrando said.

"Apparently, they do value their Guard troops, and want to prevent mass casualties to them. Also, their emperor is impressed by our fighting skills. He wants us on his side."

"Good to know we're doing something right." Mattis commented.

"He's been saying the exact same thing." Ferrando said. "Okay, that's kind of what we wanted to know. You'll have a meeting with a shrink tomorrow, before you ship out again. The boss requested you to visit him once you are ready. Anything else?"

"Eh, yeah, two things." She said. "Has my family been notified?"

"Yes, twice even. Your husband will gate home in an hour or two, so you can see him once you're done with the boss."

"Great." She said. "The other thing. He said that if we were to return him alive, no matter the answer to the proposal, he'd release a hundred thousand POW's."

"What do you think about that?"

"Sounds pretty damn good. Perhaps too good. But it might be worth risking." She said.

"It just so happens that we know it to be the truth."

"Really? How?"

"Well. It's kind of still a secret." Ferrando said.

"Yeah, but it's more of a public secret." Mattis said. He made a gesture to his colleague to go ahead.

"Okay, you might remember, that a couple of years ago, there was this riot about the military being able to copy the memories of anyone being beamed with Asgard technology."

"Yeah, I remember. That was true?"

"No, not at that point anyways. We were working on the technology to do so, but couldn't get it to work right."

"If you want to know the details you should ask General Carter, she's around somewhere. But it comes down to a couple of things. Acquisition, storage, and access. We had the storage and acquisition done, but not the access. The debate that followed brought us some good ideas and someone solved the problem for us." Mattis said.

Ferrando continued. "You and the General have been the first two operational subjects to this new technology. We've verified everything you said here before we even started. We're still sifting through the memories of the general, and we'll be doing our best to get that verified ASAP. It's a shitload but the techs wanna try something with time dilation and stasis."

"Great." Lundstrum said, not sure if she should be happy or mad at the invasion of her private thoughts.

"Okay, that's it. Go meet the Chief. Sergeants Black and White will take you." Ferrando said as he and Mattis stood up.

The two sergeants escorted her through several corridors before they exited the structure they were in. she couldn't immediately recognize the terrain. They appeared to be somewhere remote, there were some cabins and cars around, though few were military as she had expected. She looked up to the stars and did recognize several stars. She concluded she was somewhere on the eastern seaboard of North America. There appeared to be three types of people walking around, the marines, all were carrying the standard M-700 rifle and a sidearm and some more gear. A group of people in suits trying to blend in, but their posture said it all, security. The third group were people, also in suits, but definitely not security, probably bureaucrats.

As several cars drove by she got her final clue. The cars all had the seal of the president painted on their sides. This was Camp David.

"I'm here to meet the president?" she asked Black.

"Took a while." White said looking over at Black. "Yes, you are."

"And a bonus point If you can tell us our location." Black said, giving it his best 'show host' imitation.

"Camp David." She stated.

Before the two guards could reply two suits walked up to them. One was of the kind carrying guns, the other carrying nothing but a bad attitude.

"Colonel welcome here. My name is Bob Ritter, deputy assistant to the President's chief of staff." He said. From the start he seemed to be a boring guy. He turned to the other suit and grabbed something he handed to him. "This is your security ID. You'll need it to get past the security here." He said as he handed it to her. He started walking and she just followed him. "You'll meet the president in a few minutes. Before that there are some things I need to tell you about before you meet him." He started dead serious. He continued to give directions on how she should behave in the presence of the president, to not speak unless spoken too. It bored the living hell out of her, all he said appeared to her to be quite normal, definitely for someone from the military. Nevertheless she pretended to listened to the man, nodded every time he looked over to her and said 'right' and 'thank you' once in a while.

After some very painful minutes they reached a somewhat secluded cabin. Despite the darkness she could see the outlines of several marines walking a perimeter and several secret service agents, they had to be secret service, standing guard at the entrances.

She was met by an aid who seemed to have a bit more common sense and was guided inside. The aid knocked on a door and stepped in. he immediately announced her and she walked in. she was surprised by the sight. The president, along with someone else, he had his back to the door, were watching a hockey match on a nearby screen, while the first lady and the two younger children were on some couches reading and playing.

The president immediately walked up to her and extended his hand, she quickly took it. "Colonel, thank you for coming, I can imagine you want to see your family after what you've been through."

"No problem sir."

"The reason why I have called you here is twofold." He said. The other person also turned around. He appeared to be a second lieutenant with the marines, still fresh out of training. She guessed it was the president's first son, Jack jr. She could remember him joining up some time ago, following his sister, who had signed up with the space forces where, if she remembered correctly, she was now an officer serving on the Enterprise manning the flag bridge. "Colonel, considering what you've been through the last day or so, what is your opinion of the Dominion?"

"Sir?"

"You're personal opinion, not a political correct one."

"Well, the General kind of confused me sir." She saw the president look confused. "It's how he introduced himself, as a three star general, and since he's been unwilling to share his name I've gone to call him that."

"I see, General O'Neill called him Willie and, as usual, it stuck." Ryan said.

"Okay, so, Willie, appears to be an entirely different kind of Dominion from what I've been told about the rest." She started. "To be honest, from what he's said he seems to be like any other army General within our own forces. He cares for his troops, is obedient to his leaders, but wherever possible tries to prevent any losses to his men, or at least tries to minimize them."

"He's also experienced, he probably fights the hard fights for the Dominion forces. From what I gathered the Dominion forces, or at least the ground forces, are split in two. The conscript amateur part, and the Guards formations, which Willie said to be highly trained professionals. They probably preserve the Guards formations for some reason and only send them in when the fighting gets rough. It's kind of a complement to us sir."

"It's one I could do without." Ryan said. "How much damage do you think these Guards could do to us?"

"That depends on how many they have." She said. "According to Willie, some units have already been deployed and have seen action. It's likely that the breakthroughs they've had on Tauron are thanks to those formations, as well as the recent attacks on the Nox perimeter. I'd say that these units are about as good as our own National Guard formations, with a high amount of efficiency and quite some experience, we should make destroying these forces our top priority. Preferably before they make it to the battlefield. The only thing I'm not sure about is their equipment, if it's the same as their conscript counterparts it would severely compromise their abilities, but if they've got top notch weapons, vehicles, perhaps some sort of armor, we might be in for some trouble sir."

"So, considering the deal before us, what's your opinion?"

"Never. I don't have to remind you what Churchill said. England was in a much harder spot to get out than we are right now. We've got a fully equipped and prepared army, we've got a strong fleet, we've got robust defenses, plans and backup plans, technological superiority and allies. I will fight on till the end, so will any other soldier I know, none will surrender so easily. I think it's fair to say that the military is capable and willing to fight this one out till the very end, no matter what. It's the politicians who are the problem sir. Don't you worry about us sir, there's nothing like that peace loving, tree hugging, hippie shit going on with us. Sure, if we could end it now on favorable terms to us, sure we'd be all behind it, but these terms are just fucking ridiculous." She ranted. "Pardon the language."

"I couldn't agree more." Jack Ryan Junior said.

"I know you do son." Ryan senior said. "But just refusing this might not go over to well with the people, let alone with the peace coalition."

"So make 'em a counter offer." Lundstrum suggested.

"Come again?" Junior asked.

"Reject the proposal, but make 'em another. Something like, leave the galaxies, don't expand in our direction ever, and leave us the hell alone."

"Basically what would be acceptable to us." Ryan surmised.

"Yeah." Junior said enthusiastically. He quickly turned serious again. "Would that work dad?"

"The Dominion would probably reject it, but it would be a blow to the peace coalition, it won't be us refusing sensible peace, but the Dominion."

Someone stormed in, seemingly unopposed by any of the guards. "Mister president!"

"Arnie!, what is it?" Ryan said as he greeted the man who entered. "oh, by the way, this is Colonel Lundstrum, the new CO of the 12th MEU." He said. "Colonel, Arnie van Damm, my chief of staff."

The two shook hands and exchanged greetings.

"Sir, I just got off a call with a contact in the senate. Apparently, senator Wilkes will propose a bill that will require there to be a national referendum before an answer to this proposal is given."

"How the hell did he know about this? We've known this for what? Three hours?, less than a hundred people know any of the details, how did he find out so soon?"

"A hundred and one apparently, one to many." Arnie said. "It's probably gonna break early this morning, Wilkes' probably gonna play like you wanted to keep it secret and just reject, and him being the whistleblower, doing 'what's right for the country' and all that crap, being the good guy."

"Jack?" someone called from the other side of the room, it was Cathy Ryan, the first lady. "Might this be what you're talking about?" she said as she referred to a screen which showed a 'breaking news' story on CNN.

Immediately everyone walked up to the screen and the volume was turned up. _"…We just got word from an anonymous source within the government, that a Dominion representative delivered a peace proposal directly from the Dominion leadership. Ehm, so far we do not have a white house, or Pentagon comment, as I said, this just got in…"_

"Anonymous my ass." Jack said. "That's Senator Wilkes' friends at work, no doubt he'll be releasing a press statement within the hour promoting this proposal."

"That's not the worst." Arnie started. "There are elections coming up in a couple of months, and people are down a bit recently because of the lack of action from our side, which Wilkes uses to criticize the war leadership. But what I mean is, peace would not be seen as unfavorable, Wilkes will be able to spin this proposal in such a way, that the citizens won't see what it really means. They want to use their voice, a referendum gives them that chance, and senators can't vote against this right now, it will cost them their jobs."

"Crap, how long is it gonna take to organize a referendum?" Ryan asked.

"Well, there are certain things, constitutional requirements, that need to be met. But I'd say about three months." Arnie said.

"Right around the time we expect the Dominion to arrive."

"We can't hold a referendum if our home systems are under siege, can we?" Junior asked.

"This might be good." Arnie said. "We get the Dominion to stand down for our referendum, a cease fire for three months."

"General O'Neill did say that any day we postpone the Dominion arrival at the Alpha site is a good day. Every day we launch more MBDP's and thousands of drones are built. But would they ever accept?"

"We could ask Wilie." Lundstrum suggested.

"Then so be it." Ryan said. "Junior, you wanna meet a Dominion?"

"Jack! Not in here." Cathy Ryan exclaimed from the couch she was still sitting on.

"Who said anything about that. We could just as well beam to Atlantis." Ryan said as he put on a jacket.

"Sir?" Lundstrum asked as Junior also put on a jacket.

"You're done here, go meet your family." Ryan said. Lundstrum saluted him and he returned it after which she turned around walked out.

**White House press room**

**11 AM, March 10**

"Ladies and Gentlemen, the president wishes to address the nation within the hour, at which time he requests airtime on all public channels." The press secretary said. She had said the same thing since 7 AM this morning, but each time the statement was put off as the president was still talking with other heads of state, most notably the Asgard, Colonials and Free Jaffa.

"C'mon, you've been saying that for hours now, what's this about, does it have something to do with the claims by senator Wilkes about a peace proposal?" a reporter asked.

"Considering the high amount of publicity it has been getting since the Senator made those claims I dare say it is reasonable to assume that the president's address has something to do with it." She continued to answer the same kind of questions for another ten minutes before she was called back. Five minutes later she came back.

"Ladies and Gentlemen, in five minutes the president will address the nation on a matter of the highest importance. The president has requested air time on all public channels for this announcement." The press secretary said. "Just to make sure everyone understands me, the president will address the nation at approximately 11.25 AM local time."

Immediately a firestorm of questions arose, but all remained unanswered. That was, until five minutes later the president walked in and took his place behind the dais. No one asked a question, they only responded to the president's 'good morning everyone', followed by 'take a seat'.

"Yesterday, the Tau'ri Federation's fleet in orbit of the Alpha site reacted to a single Dominion warship exiting hyperspace at a reasonable distance to the planet. Apparently, it carried no hostile intent. Instead, it carried a messenger from the Dominion Empire. This Dominion identified himself as a three star general with the Dominion ground forces. He carried a message from the Dominion Emperor himself. This message is an offer of peace. The terms were as following: One, the Tau'ri Federation, as well as all other powers allied in the Great alliance will lay down their arms, and accept total leadership by the Dominion. Two, all will be pardoned, this is basically the peace part. Three, we will be allowed to keep part of our forces, but these are to be relinquished to the Dominion military if requested. If all these conditions are met we would be allowed some sort of freedom in our daily routines." Ryan said. He held for a few seconds to let it all sink in before continuing.

"It is my personal opinion, and others may not agree with me, that this is no more than a request for our surrender. Furthermore, I see this as a confirmation about our performance in this war. We have beaten the Dominion military at every opportunity and have certainly bloodied their nose. I see it as a confirmation that we can, and, if we put our backs into it, will win this war. I have always made it clear that if there was a way to end this war, I would. By that I meant with favorable terms, these are not. This morning, senior marine officers currently deployed on Tauron have contacted the Dominion command on Tauron. They said nothing about this proposal, yet they delivered another proposal. This proposal is one that covers the goals we, and the entire alliance have for this war. What it comes down to is the following, the Dominion forces leave the milky way galaxy, and any nearby galaxies containing an alliance presence. Furthermore, the Dominion would not be allowed to expand in our general direction and any nearby galaxies inhabited by the Dominion would be demilitarized to prevent a buildup of forces."

"About an hour later we received their reply, they rejected it and made us the same proposal as before. The marine officers receiving this news requested and were granted a 100 day cease fire between Dominion and Alliance forces. Just half an hour before the officers received the news a bill was proposed in congress to hold a referendum on this matter, and it passed. Constitutionally, a referendum requires a minimum of 85 days in preparation and may not be carried out in times of national duress. Since we know that the Dominion are coming for us we could not have held that referendum, since by the time it was held Earth, might very well be facing Dominion forces on her doorsteps. Also, other nations have these same sort of requirements and cannot hold a referendum while at war. Therefore, we requested a complete cessation of hostilities for the following 100 days. While other nations are free to decide when their referendums are, if they want to hold any, the referendum for the Tau'ri Federation has been set at Wednesday June 6th 2025. The cease fire will commence in about two hours and will hold until Monday, June 11th. At that time the Alliance will have to have an answer to the Dominion proposal." Ryan said.

"Further details on the referendum, the truce and the two proposals will be made available once they have been readied for release. Let me be clear, the choice each and every one of us will be facing is to either make peace at the cost of our independence, liberty and freedoms, or to continue waging war, with all its gruesome confrontations, the many deaths and wounded, the massive strain it puts on our society. But it is my opinion, my personal opinion, that we should carry on. We should keep on fighting. We've got the best army in the known universe, the best fleet, and the Dominion damn well know it. So I say go on, no matter how hard, no matter how long, I have faith in our armed forces to keep us safe, to defend us from this menace, to defeat it and beat it back."

"Thank you all, and have a good day." Ryan said as he nodded to the camera's and stepped off and left the room. The door hadn't even closed and the first reporters started yelling questions.

**that's it for now, leave a review if you feel like it.**


	18. Chapter 17

**The next chapter, it took a bit longer than I had hoped, but it's also longer than I expected. **

**Thanks to Rudy Pena and just-a-crazy-man for the beta.**

**Enjoy!**

**Midway station**

**2200 hours March 10**

He stood looking out of the same window as he did regularly. This time he wasn't looking at the piers that usually held a number of warships. Though some were still present, most of his heavy hitters were out; all 305's were deployed, as were all but one of his 304's. The only ships left were a trio of 306's and a bunch of traveler ships. Of course, there was the massive Ancient space station tethered to the midway station, but it was at the edge of his view. He was looking for something else, or rather, waiting for something else.

It was as much a surprise to him as it was to the rest of the universe when he got a flash message from Earth telling him of a 100 day cease fire with the Dominion. To him this was good news. In recent days the TFS Bellerophon and her task force had been gaining more and more intelligence on the resurfaced replicator threat in his galaxy.

Without warning they arrived. Led by the Enterprise and quickly followed by the George Hammond and Prometheus and their escorts. Also arriving were two full squadrons of battleships, nearly a dozen battle cruisers, and several 306's and as a finish the five Aurora's from General Ellis' advanced battle group. No doubt some of General Ellis' stealth- ships were already en-route to the Pegasus galaxy. These ships were 306 class ships and had advanced equipment, cloaks, phase shifting technology, some drone launchers, Atlantis grade sensors and some more.

The 306 class was originally called a space-based Littoral Combat Ship supposedly being a light frigate for work near the coast. But the LCS had developed into a much more versatile craft. Nowadays it was a scout ship, a patrol vessel, it aided Special Forces infiltrating hostile planets, and it worked as a submarine in space, raiding Dominion supply routes working in wolf packs.

The silence was pierced when the intercom activated and the officer of the watch reported in. _"General Sheppard, the reinforcements from earth have arrived, General Emerson is requesting permission to beam to the station."_

"Denied." Sheppard said after a moment. "Beam me over to the Enterprise, I'll be out of the office for a while, you can reach me there."

"_Yes sir."_ Moments later Sheppard was beamed over to the Enterprise.

**Flag Bridge, TFS Enterprise**

"General Sheppard." Emerson said as Sheppard materialized on the flag bridge of the Enterprise. He had just been told his request for transfer to the Midway station had been denied. "You in a rush?"

"General Emerson." Sheppard said. "Yes I am." He walked to Emerson and they shook hands. "Just minutes ago we got news from the Bellerophon, they got some good intel from that ship we captured, mostly navigational logs and stuff, and they just decoded it. We're going to meet up with the Bellerophon and her task force at Asuras, or what's left of the planet anyways."

"Fine by me. What kind of intel if I may ask?"

"That ship had been making some stops at Athos, it appears that the ancient city ruins there contain something of worth to them, we don't know what, but we do know they've got about a dozen ships there, so we'll go in fast and hard."

"Jumpgates?" Emerson asked, referring to the jumpgates that were part of the midway station.

"Yeah, get it going, everything you brought."

"On it." Emerson said. His officers had been listening in and went to work quietly. Within minutes the fleet was ready to jump to Asuras.

"Are you gonna come with us?" Emerson asked Sheppard.

"Yeah, I don't wanna miss this. I want to know what's so special about Athos. Teyla will want to know too once she gets back from Heliopolis."

"Okay." Emerson said. "Ensign, make 'em go." He said to one of the dozen ensigns manning various stations. On cue the first ships moved between the pillars of the jumpgates and were sent to Asuras, the rest was soon to follow.

**Hypathia, Tauron**

**0830 hours, march 11**

The single desert camouflaged Humvee drove through the streets of the heavily damaged city. The recent fighting had made its marks on the city, marks it might never recover from. At places the Humvee had to stop to allow passage to vehicles moving in the opposite direction. The engineers had done their best to clear the rubble in the streets but at some places entire sky scrapers had been toppled over creating blockades that were hard to clear.

Overhead, two flights of four Vipers flew a CAP over the city, just in case. Raptors flew back and forth delivering personnel and supplies to the front and bringing back the wounded and dead. The war might have been put on pause, but the wounded could still die, and now was the time to collect all the allied dead and give them a proper burial, while the corpses of the Dominion were either returned to the Dominion forces opposing them, or burnt on massive fires.

Eventually the Humvee reached the entrance to a partially underground parking garage. The entrance was fortified with a few defensive positions, mostly made out of sandbags. About a squad worth of troops stood guard. They halted the vehicle and queried the occupants for their identity and purpose. They were quickly allowed to pass. The driver of the Humvee knew his way around the garage and steered the vehicle to the second underground floor. Along the way they encountered numerous trucks and military vehicles parked, sometimes with their crews nearby, sometimes with mechanics, sometimes unattended. Eventually the driver stopped the vehicle near a gathering of tables with maps spread out on them, and radios and other equipment nearby. Some of the nearby officers watched interested in who would be coming.

"You need some help with your gear Colonel?" the driver asked as the female Colonel stepped out. On the other side the driver and a second lieutenant got out as well.

"Yes please." She said. She got one smaller bag, this one contained additional equipment such as a tablet, an advanced radio and some more gear that could come in handy in addition to the gear that was attacked to the vest she was wearing. "Ryan, you're with me."

"Yes ma'am." Was the quick reply from the second lieutenant. He had grabbed his bags and looked up at the driver who shot him a nervous glance as he suddenly recognized the president's son.

The two made the short trip to the center of the tables where a group of officers were discussing their current deployment. Someone called the group to attention, but the Colonel quickly stood them down.

"Colonel Lundstrum, I'm Major Ter Wiel, your new XO." The major said. They shook hands. On his shoulder she saw the patch of the old Dutch Marine Corps with the text 'Korps Mariniers' fixed just below the patch of the Tau'ri Federation. It was still common to wear one's old, pre-Federation, national, branch or divisional markings below the official Tau'ri Federation markings.

"A pleasure to meet you major." Lundstrum said. "How 'bout we start by introducing ourselves." She said.

It took just five short minutes for her staff to introduce themselves to her.

"Okay, XO, what's going on around here right now?"

"I've ordered an inventory of all our equipment and supplies, apparently some of it got lost or we were never told about it, Charlie's even managed to get their hands on a Colonial tank, I only found out about that an hour ago when they drove by to pick up the ammo they apparently had ordered for the thing. I've also got a couple of squads out, looking for alternative parking spots for all our vehicles and supplies, right now our supplies are vulnerable, all they need to do is collapse this garage and all would be gone."

"Excellent, what else?"

"I've already asked for reinforcements, I see they already sent us one second LT, it's a start I guess."

"Yeah, you've got a platoon for Ryan?"

"Yeah, second platoon, Charlie Company." He looked at the lieutenant. "Ryan?"

"Yes, it's him, don't treat him any other way though."

"Not a chance in hell."

"Good. How's the cease-fire holding up?"

"Hasn't been breached yet. We've actually been clearing the battlefield of the dead together with some Dominion units. They've returned the bodies of some of our missing personnel. We're returning their dead to them as well. It seems they really want this to go through." Ter Wiel said.

"I know. I'll go take a look once I'm done here. I'll take Ryan to his first command."

"Okay, I'll have someone stow your gear away and get someone to show you where the front actually is."

"Thanks major."

Two minutes later a marine came and took the bags of the Colonel and brought them to her new quarters, or what passed for them. Another marine led them to the surface again, from where they walked all the way to Charlie Company's second platoon.

Second platoon's HQ section was camped out in a dug in bunker at the edge of a small strip of park that lined the river that crossed between the two parts of Hypathia and was about 50 meters wide. The other marines of second platoon were also dug in at various places along the part of the river they were supposed to cover, a nearly 150 meter long stretch of the river bank.

Since they had arrived at Hypathia over a month ago the marines had not only dug their foxholes, they had also reinforced them with sandbags, dug sleeping places underground and reinforced them with whatever resources they could get their hands on, this ranged from the few trees that used to stand in the park to steel beams from destroyed buildings. They had also created a network of trenches to allow easy resupply and movement of soldiers to and from the front units. Now that the fighting had stopped the marines had once again started expanding the trenches and the platoon sergeant had managed to get his hands on some concertina wire.

The platoon sergeant walked out to greet them; he had taken charge of the platoon since the platoon commander had been blown to bits by Dominion arty while taking a shit, just hours before the cease-fire had been announced.

"Colonel, Lieutenant, I'm Staff Sergeant Garcia."

"Staff Sergeant, I'm Colonel Lundstrum, I'm the new commander of the MEU. This is Lieutenant Ryan, he'll be in charge of this platoon." Lundstrum said as she introduced the lieutenant. "Ryan one piece of advice, listen to your NCO's, they're usually right."

"Will do ma'am."

"Okay, get yourself acquainted with the platoon. Sergeant, I'll be paying a visit to the other platoons, any mines or traps I should be aware of?"

"None sir. We haven't had much time to lay mines, those that are placed are remote controlled and currently disabled. I'll tell third platoon you're coming their way, they'll keep an eye out for ya."

"'Kay, thanks." She said as she started off.

**Flag Bridge, TFS Enterprise**

**Near the remnants of Asuras**

"Bellerophon task force is joining our formation." A lieutenant at navigation reported.

"Generals, we are being hailed by Bellerophon actual."

"Put him through." Emerson ordered.

The hologram of TFS Bellerophon's commander, General Flannigan appeared as a hologram in the center of the plot table. The three generals spent a minute exchanging greetings.

"_Generals, one of General Ellis' scout ships has made a fly-by of the Athos system. They did this while phased and managed to get accurate and detailed readings of the replicator force in orbit."_ He reported.

"Okay, what've we got?" Emerson asked. Emerson and Sheppard had agreed that, while Sheppard was higher up in the chain of command, he was just a visitor, along for the ride, and Emerson would have operational control of the fleet.

"_Twelve Aurora class warships, and two smaller types, guess those are something like destroyers or some sort of patrol vessel."_

"Big difference between a destroyer and a corvette." Sheppard pointed out. "Doesn't really matter, we encountered some of them before, they've got drones and shields, 'nuff said."

"Agreed, let's just treat them as any other Ancient warship." Emerson said. "How were they deployed?"

"_The Aurora's were in a close formation directly over the ruined city while the two patrol vessels were much farther out, near one of the other planets in the system. My comms officer will transfer the data momentarily." _Flannigan said. Seconds later the Enterprise received the data that had been gathered by the scout vessel.

The hologram of General Flannigan was replaced by a lay out of the replicator fleet. The form of general Flannigan was moved to the side of the plot table.

"Okay." Emerson said as he gave it a good look. "We'll need real time intel on the position of those two smaller ships for my plan to work."

"_The scout ship is still in system, they can relay any information we need." _Flannigan commented.

"Good." Emerson said. "We'll jump the battleships in first, one squadron for each of those small ships. The idea is to blow them out of the sky before they can bother us. Then, the battleships form a single front line and the rest of the fleet jumps in behind them. We will only launch our drone fighters, no sense in using our manned fighters for this one. Nevertheless, the drone carriers will fire drones to protect the fighters, and to intercept any replicator drones coming our way. Meanwhile the entire fleet, including the carriers and drone carriers will advance towards the Aurora's and engage them. That leaves our own aurora's. At the very least the replicators will be forced to orient their fleet in our direction, and they might even abandon their position over the city to advance in the direction of our fleet. At any rate, this will leave their rear or at least one flank open to an assault by our own Aurora's, all five of them." While Emerson explained his plan a lieutenant tried to keep up and detail every ship movement and action on the holographic plot table.

"Like, this idea, I do." Sheppard said as he tried his best Yoda voice.

"_So do I." _ Flannigan said.

"Only one thing." Sheppard said. "How bout we try and capture some of them, we've got a lot of toys left from before we blew up Asuras."

"Might not be a bad idea. Perhaps Carter's got some ideas." Emerson said.

A lieutenant got the cue and contacted General Carter wherever she was. Within a minute she appeared as a hologram beside the hologram of General Flannigan.

"_Generals, what can I do for you?"_ Carter asked.

"We're about to go up against a bunch of replicators, we were wondering if you might have any toys from the good old days we might be able to use?"

"_I heard about them resurfacing. Ehm, I think I've got something. I'll send you the files, but you'll need one of our Aurora's to pull it off. Basically, an Aurora can be used to send out an anti-replicator wave just like our AR-guns, but much bigger. Thing is, the target's shields must be down, otherwise the wave will not affect the replicators inside."_

"Can this be done quickly? We're kind of on a schedule here." Sheppard asked.

"_Yeah, it should take just about five minutes once they've got the correct coding. Shouldn't be too hard."_

"Okay, thanks Sam. See you later." Sheppard said.

"_Bye, good luck." _ Carter said before the connection was cut.

"Okay, slight alteration of the plan." Emerson said. When we advance to engage the hostile Aurora's, our battleships will first attempt to disable particular sections of the hostile shields so we can hopefully destroy the replicators, but not the ships. We'll need to place our marine boarding parties on stand by and be ready to send over some engineers and scientists." Emerson looked at Sheppard who nodded in approval. "Lieutenant, tell Ellis he's got some work to do."

The Lieutenant immediately went to work and within fifteen minutes Ellis reported the preparations were done.

Emerson turned to Sheppard. "Let's inform the captains so we can get this show started."

Twenty minutes later every commander was informed of the battle plan and all ships were ready for the coming engagement.

"Lieutenant Ryan, have we gotten the data package from the scout ship yet?" Emerson asked.

"Coming in now sir. Do you want me to distribute them to the battleships?" the Lieutenant asked.

"Yes, straight away."

The Lieutenant pressed some buttons and she was done.

"All done sir."

"Flannigan's requesting permission to commence the plan." A lieutenant reported.

"Granted. Once they go, start the clock, two minutes before we go." Emerson ordered.

The eleven battleships formed up in two formations, one of five and one of six before they opened a joint hyperspace window to make the jump to Athos. Meanwhile the remaining fleet also formed up, awaiting the go order from the Enterprise.

Ten minutes later the battleships exited hyperspace near Athos. Thanks to the good intel they were right on top of the unprepared patrol ships. The two ships were gone in less than a minute.

The two groups of battleships quickly converged on a predetermined position and mere seconds after they had joined together the rest of the fleet jumped in behind them.

"General Emerson, the fleet has arrived. The battleships report no damage." A lieutenant reported once the Enterprise had exited hyperspace.

Emerson just nodded and took a swig from his cup of coffee. "Signal to fleet, commence stage 2."

As one, the fleet increased its speed and started to close the distance between them and the Replicators.

"Falcons are preparing to launch." Falcon was the nickname of the DF-310, the remote/AI controlled fighters used by the Tau'ri carriers. The Tau'ri military also used the older F-302 and the new F-311, a joint venture between the Tau'ri and Colonial militaries, it was also known as the Viper Mk. 9.

Across the central hulls of the three carriers, pieces of armor plating seemed to retract into the hull before reappearing again, this time with a fighter sitting on it. In reality the piece retracted and turned around, the fighter having been placed on the back of the piece in advance, after which it was brought up again. The launch pads were located to the side of the ship, the top featured defensive weaponry, mostly CILS and some rail guns. The top side also featured the regular landing deck, here the other craft could land on a normal deck. Most of the facilities were located beneath the inner hull, but a few such as the deck control center were actually located on the outer hull.

"Replicator ships are launching a first wave of drones, approximately five hundred in total."

"Drone Carriers are launching drones to intercept." The Drone Carriers (DC-308) were a space based version of a guided missile cruiser, supposed to defend the carrier with its many drones. Most of the drones were Tau'ri built copies of the Ancient design, they weren't as powerful, but in numbers were just as deadly.

The Drone Carriers launched nearly a thousand drones. The drones were guided to their targets through reverse engineered drone chairs. Somewhere between the two fleets the two groups of drones collided with each other. Nearly half the hostile drones were taken out in the first blow, the rest pushed on, pursued by the Tau'ri drones. Five hundred more drones were launched to help intercepting the remaining drones.

"Sir, most hostile drones have been taken out, approximately one hundred remaining."

"What are their targets?"

"Mostly spread out across the battleships, some to the other ships, but mostly the 305's."

"CILS and CIWS engaging."

Both the projectile and laser version of the Close In Weapon systems engaged the drones, the projectile version had little to no effect on the partially phased drones, the short burst lasers were able to cut down over three quarters of the incoming drones.

A mere two dozen drones struck the Tau'ri fleet. At most it knocked a few percent of shield strength off of the advanced Asgard/Ancient hybrid shields of the capital ships. Though very powerful, one or two ancient drones wouldn't drain the multiple-ZPM powered shields.

"Launch retaliatory strike. Deploy the Falcons." Emerson ordered.

The six drone carriers, there were always two drone carriers for one carrier, launched a large swarm of drones, counting nearly twenty thousand strong sped forwards from the launch tubes. Simultaneously, the Falcons lifted off from their carriers, over 400 in total. In this instance the Falcons were controlled by human operators from aboard the carriers. The Falcons quickly formed up in squadrons and advanced behind a wall of drones.

The replicators launched drones to intercept.

Once the two groups of drones clashed the Falcons were able to push through and engage the replicator Aurora's. The Aurora's returned fire with their energy weapons, but had a hard time actually hitting the small, fast and nimble Falcons.

Meanwhile, with the drones engaged and the replicator Aurora's occupied, the fleet had advanced into range of the main weaponry aboard the 304's and 305's. As one, dozens of streams of blue-white plasma sped towards the Replicator ships. In seconds it had crossed the distance and the otherwise occupied Aurora's didn't see it coming until it was too late. The many streams slammed into the shields of the Aurora's, though none were taken down, they did take quite an amount of damage due to the simultaneous taxation of their emitters.

This caused the Aurora's to change their targets from the Falcons to the capital ships.

"Sir, the Hercules is requesting permission to retreat, its shields are severely depleted." Someone announced. The Hercules was one of the battle cruisers with the fleet.

"Granted, our standing orders are still valid." Those orders were to preserve ships whenever possible so they could life to fight another day. "Do we have those weak spots already? More ships will have to retreat soon." Emerson said as he glanced over at a status screen of the entire fleet, several ships reported weakening shields.

"Just finishing up on the last two."

"Call in the Aurora's, let's get them ready. Have Ellis fire the AR gun the moment we've breached all shields." Emerson said. "Tell all ships to concentrate on the detected weak spots, break 'em wide open."

Moments later the five Aurora's exited hyperspace. They immediately launched streams of drones at the Replicator aurora's.

General Ellis led his Aurora force from the Tria, a command version of the regular aurora's. The other four aurora's were late-war era versions, specifically designed for combat, the original Aurora class, such as the hippaforalkus, renamed Orion by Sheppard, was an all-purpose vessel, already several thousand years in use before the Wraith first emerged. These war-version ships were named for Pegasus planets, namely, Athos, Sateda, Hoff and Lantea. Since the five aurora's had been incorporated in the Tau'ri fleet, they had been heavily upgraded with all sorts of stuff, additional weaponry, extra power sources, improved shield generators which combined Asgard and Ancient technologies, better hyperdrives and an overall improvement in power efficiency.

Now all the weaponry came in good use as the aurora's could quickly find themselves outnumbered, though not so much outgunned.

The first streams of drones were intercepted mere kilometers away from the replicator ships by a massive launch of their own drones. This had left them undefended against the incoming fire from the rest of the fleet and within moments the first weak spot was pierced. Thirty seconds later two other shields were pierced, however, one of the aurora's suffered severe damage to its structural integrity and broke apart before anything could be done by the replicators. Within minutes the other ship's shields had been breached by massive concentrated firepower from the Tau'ri fleet.

"General, all shields are breached."

"How long till Ellis is ready to fire the AR?" Emerson asked.

"Thirty seconds."

"Sir! Over five hundred drones have broken through our perimeter and are heading straight for us." A lieutenant reported, the anxiety showing in his voice.

"Can we stop them?" Sheppard asked.

"Not all sir, a lot will get through."

"Calculate impact trajectories. Are they targeting one specific area?" Emerson asked. He had a bad feeling about it when he saw the swarm of drones heading for the ship's starboard side.

A major working the holographic plot table executed the calculations and sent it to the table while muttering an 'oh shit'.

"Paul?" Sheppard asked as both looked at the holographic projection. It showed what Emerson was afraid of. "Could you explain?"

Emerson didn't answer though, he ran over to someone manning the damage control panel. It left only a lieutenant with the general. "Sir." The lieutenant started a bit uncertain. She got an approving nod from Sheppard. "Those drones are targeting one of the Falcon launch/recovery platforms. And not just one, but one near one of twelve tubes that are used to bring the Falcons to and from their launch/recovery platforms to their maintenance bay. If those drones breach the shields and outer hull, which is likely considering the amount, they can maneuver to one of those tubes, and ride all the way down into the tubes and detonate inside the bays."

"Crap." Sheppard said after a few seconds. "There are no other safeties?"

"Well, each tube has 2 doors meant to be closed if the atmospheric shields fail, right now they're closed as well, but they won't hold back drones. And we've got an atmospheric shield to protect the maintenance crews from being sucked into outer space."

"Thanks Lieutenant…" He said while reading her name tag. "…Ryan." He said mildly surprised.

"You're welcome sir."

The PA Activated and three short beeps sounded followed by the XO of the Enterprise. _"All hands brace for impact, starboard side Falcon maintenance bay, evacuate and seal off bay seven."_

Over sixty meters deep inside the hull of the Enterprise the maintenance crews all hustled to their DC stations, those in bay area seven rushed to the evac doors to get out ASAP. To the side of the bay, which ran along most of the length of the ship the blast proof doors that could separate each of the twelve bays from one another came down and up closing each separate section. As a precaution the fuel was drained from their tubes and munitions storages were sealed shut and, in the case of the larger ones, internal shields activated to protect them.

The CILS/CIWS had taken out nearly a hundred drones in the short time they had, but it still left over four hundred drones.

The first hundred drones that slammed in the shields expanded all their energy to create a hole before bouncing off the hull harmlessly. The next hundred had little trouble getting through and ruined a Falcon launch/recovery pad creating several holes through which the other drones could advance. The next hundred drones took care of the two blast doors and atmospheric shields sucking the air out of bay seven as well as a dozen crewmembers that hadn't gotten out in time.

The remaining drones were free to cause as much mayhem as they could. Two grounded Falcons were torn apart, fortunately without their internal reactors blowing up. A rack of flares went off causing a chain reaction with a rack of air to air missiles tearing several bulkheads off their hinges and opening adjacent corridors up to space. The remaining drones either burrowed deeper into the ship looking for things to explode like reactors or munitions storages, or they tore into the blast doors opening the two adjacent bays up to space as well. The drones that tried to get to the munitions storages were halted by the internal force fields, but those that went for the adjacent bays were more successful and disabled any internal shielding and the blast doors, opening bays six and eight up to space as well, taking over forty people to their deaths as they were either sucked out into space, or killed by exploding ordnance and Falcons.

The entire ship was shaken by the many internal explosions in the starboard side hanger bay. All the way on the flag bridge they felt the explosions and had to hold on to anything that would provide grip to them.

The PA activated _"Breaches of starboard side bays six through eight and adjacent corridors, DC parties to the access tube, atmospheric shielding is offline."_

"Sir all shields are pierced, Ellis is ready to fire." A lieutenant reported as she took her seat again.

"Do it now!"

Ellis must've been reading his mind because that moment the Tria let out the AR wave. It quickly closed the distance and as it engulfed the first aurora it immediately cease operating. It quickly reached the second and third aurora, which both ceased operating. Within seconds it had covered all eleven Aurora's which were now all drifting uncontrolled.

"General, all ships have ceased firing."

"Good, what about their shields?" Emerson asked.

"The holes we made have grown a bit larger, and several more have formed as well. Perhaps they were adjusting the shield frequencies manually." An ensign suggested.

"All right, beam the boarding parties over, let's get us some new ships."

"Yes sir."

Several minutes went by as the boarding parties were beamed over to the aurora's and attempted to establish control of the ships.

"Why am I not getting reports of those ships under our control?" Emerson asked his command staff. All teams were well known with Ancient tech and should have been able to get control within seconds through the command chair.

"Sir, it appears that there are some safeties on those ships that prevent us from simply interfacing through the chairs, they're trying to come up with a work-around."

"At least tell me they're all going to stay in space for the time being." Emerson said.

"Sir?"

"Planetary pull, are any of the ships drifting towards the planet?"

"Checking sir." A lieutenant said with a red head. "Nine are safe, two are drifting to the planet."

"How long until we lose them?"

"The first in a minute or two, the other has about four more minutes before it starts entering the atmosphere."

"Any chance of gaining control of the ship by that time?"

"Not really sir."

"Then evacuate those auroras, no sense in losing our people on them."

The aurora's were quickly evacuated and left to drift. What they hadn't expected was that the first aurora did not break up when it entered the atmosphere. Though parts of the ship were burnt up, shields protected the inner compartments long enough. The remains of the aurora slammed into the ruins of the ancient city, destroying it.

"Ah fuck." Sheppard said as someone reported the bad news. "I wanted to take a look at that city, see what had the replicators interested."

"No luck on that I guess." Emerson said. "What about the remaining nine?" he asked as the other aurora was also reported gone.

"One of our techs has managed to crack the code on one of the auroras, he's currently walking the other techs through. Just a minute or two more."

"Good, let's tell the president the good news."

**Hypathia, Tauron**

**1533 hours, march 13**

Colonel Lundstrum was with her staff, going over the plans for a secondary line to be created several hundred meters behind the primary line. Since she had arrived a few things had changed, all the trucks and supplies were dispersed somewhat to make them less vulnerable and reinforcements had come in to bring the unit up to full strength.

"Sir, I've got a call for you." One of the communication techs said as he held up a headphone.

Lundstrum walked over and accepted the headphone. "Who is it?"

"The president, sir."

Surprised she put the headphone on and the tech activated the line. "This is Colonel Lundstrum."

"Colonel, please hold for the president."

Less than ten seconds later the president was on the line. "Colonel, how are you doing?"

"Fine sir, just settling in."

"And how's my son doing?"

"He's doing fine as well, I visited him this morning, and he's a quick learner."

"That's good to hear. As you might have guessed that wasn't why I called you."

"It had crossed my mind sir."

"Well, I wanted to give you a heads up. In about ten minutes a spacehawk will bring the Dominion general, named Willie to your location, you will then escort him across the river to the Dominion forces, they have been informed of the situation."

"Just drive him over the river and release him? Anything else?"

"Nothing for the moment, we've already gotten the coordinates for the POW's, ships are currently en-route to collect them."

"Very well sir."

"Good luck, and send my son my regards."

"Will do sir." Lundstrum replied and with that the line went dead.

"Colonel, I've got a black-ops chopper coming in, they're requesting instructions on where to land. What should I tell them?"

"Tell Charlie to clear a helipad ASAP, I'll be heading over, I'll also need an amtrack."

"Colonel, care to fill me in on what's going on?" her XO asked.

"I'm to deliver someone to the other side, you'll be in charge for the moment."

"Okay." Ter Wiel said, not really convinced.

"Nothing to worry about." She reassured him.

An amtrack came up from a lower level of the parking garage to pick her up. She exchanged a few more words with her XO before entering the amtrack and leaving the structure.

A few minutes later they had arrived at Charlie Company's CP, just forty meters away a LZ had been cleared and a marine was using some glow sticks to indicate to the pilot where to land. Four heavily armed Special Forces soldiers stepped out and escorted Willie to the colonel. She saw that the Dominion looked well and even had a sly smile.

"Colonel, Subject W, do you need us to escort you across?"

"No thanks, can you take those cuffs off?"

"You sure ma'am?"

"Yes." She said.

The soldiers took the cuffs off and stood back.

"Okay, you ready Willie?"

"As far as I know there isn't much to be ready for, unless you want to swim across this river?" Willie answered.

"Nah, we've got something for that. Come with me."

Together they walked over to the amtrack and entered it. Both stuck their heads out of the open top hatches for the duration of the ride.

A sergeant was at the wheel of the amtrack.

"Sergeant, drive, slowly, we don't want to get wet up here." Lundstrum ordered.

Immediately the amtrack started moving forwards. As it reached the bank of the river it slowed down and slowly moved forwards as it entered the water. Once they were in they sped up again.

"How 'bout you wave to them to show why we're crossing the river." Lundstrum suggested.

"Did your commander in chief not tell you we were expected?"

"Yes he did, but can't be too safe."

"True." Willie said. He waved a few times until they saw a Dominion on the other side wave back. "I guess we've got contact now." He said.

A few minutes later they had reached the other side and the rear hatch was lowered.

"After you." Lundstrum said.

Willie got out first and greeted the Dominion soldiers that had gathered. Lundstrum got out second and looked around a bit, looking for any kind of intel that could be useful, she didn't see much.

"So, are you okay here?" she asked.

"Yes, thank you for the ride." He said as he held out his hand.

"Can't take that." She said looking at his hand. "You and me being enemies and all."

"That might change soon."

"I doubt it, unless you guys are ready to leave this galaxy."

"Then not I guess." He replied. "Good bye." He said as she stepped into the amtrack again. The amtrack turned around and drove back to the other side of the river.

**Stargate, Novantae**

**1422 hours, March 16**

The stargate on this planet was of a new design created by the Tau'ri. More and more planets were equipped with the new stargate, even if it already had a stargate. The new design allowed the transportation of larger vehicles, such as the main battle tank of the Tau'ri Army, which helped with the rapid deployment of military forces. Today no MBT's came rolling through the open wormhole. Instead seven Humvees exited the wormhole. They immediately fanned out to secure a perimeter, within minutes twenty more Humvees exited the wormhole. Eventually all Humvees had formed a circle around the stargate and the soldiers had exited the vehicles. A lieutenant approached the captain.

"Sir, we've secured a perimeter around the stargate, we haven't found any signs of life except for the road that should lead to the city."

"Excellent Lieutenant. I want third platoon to stay at the stargate while the rest of the company moves to the city, let's find out what happened there." They were here to investigate the lack of contact from the city Novantae. The city was a colony of about thirty thousand inhabitants, created by a race named the Selgovae, a peaceful great alliance member. It was one of those relatively advanced, but pacifist nations. Being left alone by the Goa'uld and any other hostile creature in the galaxy, they had developed without interference from the outside. Their technology was a bit ahead of Earth's, if the stargate hadn't been discovered, but their military capabilities were virtually non-existent. They depended on the alliance for protection in return for medical, humanitarian and developmental aid to the smaller and less developed members of the alliance. When they had settled this planet they knew there was a local tribe present, but those had agreed to allow the Selgovae to settle.

The city communicated daily with its home planet. Recently the contact had ceased. Four technicians were sent to the city to help repairing the subspace relays, but nothing had been heard of these men since. This led the Selgovae to ask for military assistance from the alliance. It was decided to send a company of Tau'ri airborne soldiers, it would be a strong enough force to defend itself and was mobile enough to move out immediately, and without orbital support. The company sent was the famous E company/second battalion/506th PIR from the 101st airborne division.

"_Attention all Easy elements. Easy three will remain on site to secure the gate, all other Easy elements will move towards the city, Easy one will take lead. Out."_ The Captain announced over the company's network.

The platoon commanders issued orders to their subordinates and within minutes a column with the first platoon in the lead made their way to the city.

The city was about twenty kilometers away from the gate on the other side of a low hill near a small river. It took the company about twenty five minutes to reach the hill that overlooked the city. Here the captain ordered the company to hold.

"_Easy four, mortars and command elements will set up over watch on this hill. Easy one and two will enter the city and assess the situation. Out."_

Affirmatives followed from the various leaders involved and the captains' orders were followed.

Easy one-one was the most forward vehicle in the column of fifteen Humvees that were about to enter the city. As they reached the city limits they turned the first corner and were stopped immediately.

"_Easy one-six, one-one here, be advised, the road is blocked by trash."_ The sergeant in the first vehicle reported over the platoon coms as his driver brought the Humvee to a halt. He was also the team leader of the first team.

"_Easy one-one, copy. Do you see a way to push through?"_ the platoon lieutenant asked.

"_Negative, from my point I can see several I-beams and other construction materials, I doubt my victor can push through."_ The sergeant replied.

"_Understood, wait one."_ The lieutenant replied before he switched to another channel. _"Easy six, this is Easy one, victor one-one reports the road into the city is blocked please advise_." He asked the company commander.

"_Easy one, Easy six. Dismount your vehicles and proceed on foot. Leave one team from Easy one and Easy two to secure the victors, how copy?"_

"_Copy that, proceed on foot, leave two teams to secure the victors."_ The lieutenant replied.

He switched channels again to that of his platoon. _"Easy one this is Easy one-six, dismount, team three stays behind to secure the victors, the rest will proceed on foot."_ he knew that his colleague from second platoon would give the same order.

The fifty or so soldiers dismounted and proceeded on foot climbing over the barricade. The city appeared abandoned, some of the doors were open, and in some cases appliances were still powered on.

"Team one, enter those buildings and find out if someone's still inside."

As team one entered several homes the rest of the two platoons slowly moved forwards deeper into the city.

A few minutes later the sergeant of team one reported back.

"Lieutenant, we found nobody. It does appear that the residents left in a hurry around dinner time, we found some unfinished meals, at least a couple of days old."

"Thank you sergeant. Continue on."

Some corporal drew their attention.

"Come on, fuck this." The corporal said as he tried to open the door of a residence. The door wasn't locked, but it was blocked by something on the inside.

"Put your shoulder into it corporal." The lieutenant suggested. The corporal did as suggested but after a few tries he still couldn't open the door.

"Sorry sir, it just won't budge."

"Then go through the window." The sergeant replied.

"Okay." The corporal said as he bashed in the window with the end of his weapon. The lieutenant and sergeant looked on as the corporal climbed in, followed by a private and went through a door that led to the front door. Seconds later the private came back, his face all white and gasping for air as he steadied himself on a chair.

"Sir!" the corporal yelled from the hall. "You're gonna want to see this."

"On my way." The lieutenant replied as he too climbed through the window, followed by the sergeant, who instead of going into the hall went to see the private.

The lieutenant stopped dead in his tracks as he turned to corner into the hallway. The sight made him happy to not have had a heavy lunch. He saw what appeared to be female, early twenties, murdered by several vicious cuts. She was slumped against the door, preventing it from being opened properly.

"Ah, fuck." The lieutenant said. _"Easy six, Easy one-six."_

"_Go ahead Easy one-six."_

"_We found a female at my location, apparently murdered. Please advise."_

"_Easy one-six, mark the location and move on, nothing we can do for her now."_

"_Copy Easy six. Interrogative, any chance of our victors finding a way around the barricade?"_

"_We're launching a UAV, we'll keep you updated._

The group got out of the house through the window. "Alright first platoon, let's keep moving, we've got a lot of ground to cover!" the lieutenant said.

The second platoon had already advanced a few streets ahead. While they were clearing some houses and holding for a few minutes their lieutenant sought out the lieutenant from first platoon.

"Bill, I heard your call on the radio. We've found something similar."

"What've you got?"

"A family, two adults, three young kids. All appear to have been stabbed and cut to death, probably something with a long blade."

"Crist, what the fuck happened here?"

"Some sort of genocide?"

"I sure hope not. But where is the rest, we've found six, out of what? Thirty thousand?"

"Yeah. Let's go to the city center, perhaps there's more information there."

Both lieutenants were distracted as three soldiers stumbled out of an alley before falling to their knees and puking their guts out. Before they could get there a fourth soldier peeked around the corner and instantly turned around with a hand over his mouth trying not to vomit. As they both reached the soldiers one of them looked around the corner for a second.

"Aw shit." He said. "That's just fucking gross."

"What is it?" the other lieutenant asked.

"They… those mofo's… they put little kids on an iron fence, the kind with the spikes, they fucking staked them!" he said as he squatted trying to suppress the horror of it.

"This isn't looking good Bill, not at all."

"I agree Thomàs, tell the captain, I think we're gonna need more troops, and choppers."

"Will do." _"Easy six, Easy two-six. We've found evidence that suggests that some sort of brutal attack took place, our suggestion is to call in additional forces and air transport, also get an investigative unit here."_

"_Easy two-six, can you tell me what you found?"_

"_I doubt I could put it in words Easy six. But if this is any indication as to what happened with the rest we might not require any MRE's for the coming days. Hell, I think there are more MRE's on the ground than in our gear."_

"_Very well, I'll make the call. Also, your transport is five minutes out, rendezvous is at the next intersection due west of your position."_

"_Copy, well head for the next intersection for our pickup."_

They moved on, most trying not to let their curiosity get the better of them and have a peak. The few that did had great difficulty not to puke. A few minutes later they had reached the intersection and they could already see their vehicles approaching. Once they had arrived they mounted up again and advanced in the direction of the city center at a leisurely pace.

Along the way to the city center they found no more bodies, although some doors were forced open and had blood stained boot prints exiting them. They didn't stop to investigate but pushed on to the center.

"_Easy one-one, Easy one-six. To reach the center you should take the next left, proceed for about four hundred meters and take a right, follow the road and then take a left, followed by an immediate right."_

"_Copy Easy one-six."_

The first vehicle which held the leader of first platoon's first team came up on the corner and rounded it before coming to an immediate halt.

"_Easy one-one, Easy one-six. What's the holdup?"_

"_Easy one-six, one-one here, there is a body in the road, request permission to dismount and clear our route."_

"_Granted, document the scene but make it quick."_

Three members of the Humvee got out, one took out his tactical tablet and used it to photograph the scene before the other two carried the body off to the side of the road and covered it up with a poncho. With that done the three soldiers got back in the Humvee and the column got on its way again.

For the rest of the ride they proceeded pretty well, only having to stop once or twice to remove bodies from their path. As they got to the last corner the first Humvee stopped again. This time only the team leader dismounted and walked to the corner.

From about seventy meters away the lieutenant could see the sergeant's posture change, from his weapon at the ready to holding it with just his right hand aiming the weapon down. Beyond that he didn't move a muscle for a moment. He then got on his radio.

"_Easy one-six, Easy one-one. We've got a massacre down here. The road's blocked."_ The sergeant reported as he shook his head.

"_Easy one-one, understood." "Easy one, prepare to proceed on foot again. Easy six, do you copy?"_

"_Easy six copies. Proceed on foot, reinforcements are arriving as we speak, the first hawk should be there in about ten minutes."_

The troops dismounted and walked to the corner, all were stunned by the sight. The park that was part of the city center and the surrounding streets were filled with bodies, at some places stacked on one another.

"Alright, spread out and check for any signs of life, let's hope some are still alive."

The soldiers did this immediately. Checking for a pulse wasn't always that easy, it wasn't just a massacre, it appeared that an event of mass torture, rape and killing had taken place. Some of the bodies didn't even have wrists or a neck that the soldiers could check for a pulse, not that it was necessary in those cases anyway.

First platoon's lieutenant was the first to reach the park. It was a simple grassy field with a pond and some trees. As he stepped onto the field his boots made a soggy sound. He lifted up his left foot to see what he had stepped in and the sight disturbed him greatly. Not only did a thick red liquid slowly drip from his boot, there were also some pieces of what could only be someone's internal organs. The entire field was covered with blood and insides, along with the bodies of the owners. As he took a closer look at the pond he could see that it was not only filled with bodies, but also a deep red from all the blood in it.

About twenty meters away the platoon's medic looked around in shock by the amount of death. He had seen what had happened with the lieutenant's boot. He swallowed a few times to keep his stomach from turning inside out. "If there's anyone out there you need to shout out so we can help you!" he yelled.

It had the effect of stopping everyone dead in their tracks to listen to a response.

To their surprise they did get some responses and everyone immediately ran to the nearest source of sound.

The medic and lieutenant had made for a boy near their position. He had barely been able to speak out but instead had raised his hand, it had already fallen down again but the two soldiers had seen it for long enough and within seconds they were at his location. The boy seemed to have been sheltered by his father, who had died from several stab wounds to the back. They gently lifted the father off and lay him aside.

The boy himself was covered with blood but at first it was unclear if it was his, or that of his father. "Where're you wounded kid?" the medic asked.

The boy didn't say anything though one of his hands did move a bit, it unveiled a large hole in his stomach and a deep cut leading away from it. The medic immediately went to work on the wound starting with an injection of medical nanites, they wouldn't heal him, but would give them a bit more time to get him to a hospital.

"Sir, I need a medevac yesterday." The medic told his lieutenant.

"I'll get on it." He stood up and looked around to assess the situation. The best way to get the kid out of there was to use a space hawk, but the entire area was covered with bodies so a hawk couldn't land there. The only option other than the Humvees was the rooftop of what appeared to be city hall, from where he stood it seemed to be flat. As it were, three soldiers were nearby checking on some bodies. He got their attention and told them to find a way to the roof, and if it could sustain a spacehawk.

"_Easy six, Easy one. What's the ETA on those hawks? I have several badly injured civilians in dire need of a medevac to Nox Prime."_

"_Easy one, first hawk's coming through the gate as we speak, should be there in about eight minutes, do you have an LZ?"_

"_Working on it Easy six, will be done when the hawk gets here. Please make sure the gate's dialed to Nox P and they have some trauma teams on stand-by."_

"_It'll be done. Six out."_

Nox Prime was the homeworld of the Nox, it was commonly known as Nox P. The system itself had four habited worlds, three of which were inhabited by the Nox themselves and one by refugees. Nox prime also held an enormous multinational medical complex which served as the primary hospital for alliance troops in need of medical attention. It was the most advanced hospital to be found in the galaxy and had doctors from all over the alliance, Nox healers, doctors and nurses from the Tau'ri, Colonies, Free Jaffa and many other powers. It also used technology from the Asgard, Ancients, Tau'ri and Colonials to treat its patients. Overall, of those that would reach the stargate in this hospital, 99 percent would survive, perhaps not always completely healed, but still alive and breathing nevertheless.

Seven minutes later the roof of city hall had been cleared of anything that could interfere with a space hawk. Six wounded had been brought up and were waiting for their evac. The spacehawk arrived a little bit later. It first circled over the square to search for the make-shift LZ. Once they had found the LZ the spacehawk approached and landed. Seven medics got out while three others helped load the wounded into the space hawk. The seven that got out followed the other soldiers and went to work on trying to find more wounded. The other three medics would fly back with the wounded and see to it that they would make it to the stargate.

**Mess Hall, Midway station**

**1911 hours**

Sheppard and Larrin were enjoying a late dinner in the mess hall. Sheppard had been back at the station since the Enterprise was undergoing repairs to fix the damage done by the drone strike. Several other ships were also being repaired at the midway station and two 304's had been sent back to Earth because of the extensive damage. The rest of the fleet was divided in two and was running down several leads on the revived Asurans. Also, nine new aurora class warships were docked at the station. A small crew of mostly technicians had already started working on getting the ships ready for combat and every day more and more crewmembers arrived. The ships had only suffered minor damage and even though their stores of drones were mostly depleted they were now being restocked with Tau'ri drones brought in from Earth.

"Mind if I join you john?" Emerson asked as he approached with a tray.

"Sure thing Paul. How are the repairs going?" Sheppard asked.

"The shaft will be out of business for a couple more days, but we've already repaired bays six and eight. Seven will take a couple more days, besides; we don't have the equipment to make it fully operational again. We'll ship that in from Earth, along with some buckets of paint." Emerson surmised.

"John, didn't you promise O'Neill not to scratch the paint?" Larrin asked.

"Which is why we're gonna paint the whole ship and keep all this damage out of the logs." Sheppard smiled.

"Too late for that, I just spoke to him this morning, he doesn't mind though, especially since we brought in nine Aurora's."

"Speaking about that, how far along are you with assigning commanders and crew to those ships?" Larrin asked.

"Pretty far, they're still looking for three commanders and about forty people for command staff functions, why? Fancy a new command?" Sheppard said.

"Actually, I think Katana might be well suited for a new command."

"She's the one that got this whole replicator thing started right?" Emerson asked.

"Yeah, she's been in command of her ship for ages and she's doing well."

"I'll put her name on the short list. Would she accept an XO or command staff function?"

"Probably."

"How about we get her in temporary command of one of the auroras? At least until an official commander can be confirmed." Emerson suggested.

A captain approached them and saluted. Sheppard and Emerson returned the salute and Sheppard accepted the file the captain offered him. Sheppard opened the file and quickly scanned the first few pages containing trivial information. Once he got to the real message he was quick to whistle. "Paul, looks like we've got lucky."

"Yeah, what's it?"

"We found the replicators. All of them bunched together at one planet."

"Are you sure it's all of them?"

"Intel suggests that the replicators keep close to their home assuming there is strength in numbers."

"Until we've got the numbers to match theirs."

"Well, there's one thing we can't match."

"Like?"

"A city ship."

"Ouch." Emerson said. "That might change things a bit."

"Perhaps. McKay's got a plan though."

"Like what? A superweapon?"

"He sure as hell has had enough time to come up with something new." Sheppard laughed. "Actually, it's a reincarnation of an old plan."

"Which one? The Fran thing?" Emerson asked referring to the Friendly Replicator Android used to destroy Asuras.

"Nope, he wants to use one of Carter's old plans. He wants to send a stargate, connected to one about to be swallowed up by a black hole, into the sun. This should make the star go supernova and take care of our problem."

"Interesting." Emerson said as he thought it over. He remembered the mission report written by then major Carter. The mission had succeeded in evacuating the Tok'ra, and had destroyed a large part of the Goa'uld fleet. Unfortunately Apophis and his mothership escaped. "Who's gonna do the delivery?"

"I'm gonna detail the Bellerophon and her escorts to this." Sheppard said. "McKay's currently rigging up a shield emitter, subspace drive and naquadriah generator to a stargate. They'll FEDEX it to midway and we'll bring it to the Bellerophon. It'll take a day or two until the whole thing is ready. I do want all ships at standby, if the plan goes wrong we might need to jump in and help them out, or clean up if some manage to escape."

"Do you want to risk the whole fleet to safe one task force if things go wrong?" Emerson asked.

"I want to have the option to send in the whole fleet, just in case. The replicators have shown to be resilient bastards in the past. If it comes down to a slugfest we might just survive if we deploy the whole fleet instead of just the Task Force."

"Why not just send in a phased 306 or aurora. Or deploy them cloaked at the edge of the system?" Larrin asked.

"Intel suggests they have deployed long range detection satellites just for this option. Also, the stargate has to connect to another stargate near a black hole. This connection can be detected, and we need a 305 to mask this connection until the stargate is near the sun, from then on the connection will be masked by the sun."

"The Bellerophon will pretend to accidentally stumble on the Replicator homeworld and try to gather as much information while trying to stay hidden. Once the going gets to rough they'll pull out." Emerson added.

"And by that time, the stargate will have reached the sun." Larrin finished.

"Exactly."

**2322 hours**

The president had been called for a late meeting by General O'Neill. Both had found a seat in the oval office, and something to drink.

"So what's this mess at Novantae?"

"We're not yet sure why, but their neighbors apparently wiped the Selgovae colony out."

"What are we talking about? How many people died?" Ryan asked.

"Out of nearly thirty thousand over twenty-nine thousand died. About one hundred people were found severely wounded, while an estimated 750 fled into the woods. We're currently trying to find and rescue them, but the dense forest is making is difficult."

"Why?" Ryan asked as he shook his head in sadness.

"We don't yet know, the local commander has requested permission to make armed contact with the neighbors to find out."

"How armed?"

"Armored Humvees and air support. About a platoon worth of airborne infantry."

"They want full control over the ROE?"

"Preferred, yes sir. I recommend giving it to them, they're Para's, they know when they're being threatened and can use force."

"Granted, tell them not to get to loose will ya."

"Will do."

"Now that you're here, I'd like to know how Sally and Junior are doing." Ryan asked. Sally was his oldest daughter serving aboard the Enterprise, while Junior was his oldest son serving with the Tau'ri Marines on Tauron.

"I haven't heard much about Junior, he joined his platoon the day the cease fire was declared so he hasn't seen much action yet."

"How about Sally? With the Enterprise being hit and all."

"From what I gathered she wasn't seriously wounded. She didn't report to medical, so at most some bumps and bruises." O'Neill said. "Hasn't she contacted you yet sir?"

"Just a short e-mail saying she was fine and had no time to make a call. Apparently she is heavily involved with the repairs."

"The Enterprise did suffer quite some damage, from what I heard everyone's pitching in after their regular shifts to speed up the repairs."

"I guess that once the fleet returns from the Pegasus galaxy she'll have some time to call home."

"Probably sir. In my opinion you shouldn't worry too much about your daughter, she's aboard one of the strongest, best defended warships in the fleet. Yes the Replicators damaged it, but that was a once off thing, Emerson will make sure it won't happen again. Once the shooting starts up again Junior will be in much more danger, he'll be on the front lines."

"I guess you're right. It's just, Sally's my little girl, and I feel as if she needs much more protection."

"I guess that's parental instinct."

"Must be. Talking about being a parent, I have to help KD with his upcoming economics test. So if you don't mind, I'll escort you to the door and let you spend what remains of the evening with your wife." Ryan said. KD was his youngest son Kyle Daniel.

**TFS Bellerophon**

**1159, march 20**

"General, all stations report ready. Exiting hyperspace in 20 seconds."

"Last update on our escorts?"

"All ready for combat."

"Status on the stargate?"

"The Chief says the gate is ready, the bay doors are open and clamps are engaged, thrusters are ready."

"Okay then. Let's do this."

"Dropping out of hyperspace in 3...2...1... Now."

The ship and its escorts exited hyperspace. There were no Replicator ships nearby as per their plan.

"Engage ECM and launch the gate." Flannigan said. "Also start sweeping the system, we need to sell the idea we've stumbled on them and are trying to gather as much info as we can."

"_ECM activated, they can't see shit."_ Someone reported.

"_Loading dock confirms, gate is away."_ Another person reported in as a screen showed the gate drifting out of the loading dock.

"_Short range sensor grid at full power, we're getting all kinds of shit here sir."_

"Sir, should I start compiling the data and send it back to earth? I we use short burst transmissions they would probably pick it up."

"Good thinking, do it right away."

"_Gate is dialing." _ Someone reported from a control station. _"Third chevron locked." _ He said, he continued the count up to number six. _"Seventh chevron locked and engaged. We have a connection to the black hole."_

"How long till the gate reaches the sun?"

"Six more minutes sir."

"Replicator ships are approaching our location. Six minutes away."

"Prepare the hyperdrive, divert power away from main weaponry to the shields."

The lights flickered lightly as power was diverted to the shields. A light shudder went through the deck followed by a soft alarm quickly followed by a beeping console and a louder alarm.

"Electronic countermeasures off-line!" a lieutenant reported as he tapped furious at his console. "Re-routing power through the forward grid!"

"Get it back up! What happened?"

"Auxiliary power relay couldn't handle the stress of the power transfer. It blew, taking the primary power line to the main ECM computer down. Back-up computer was too busy dealing with the energy surge to jump in and take over."

"How long till you get it back on-line?"

"Any second now." The lieutenant said. "Power rerouted, computer is back on-line, ECM activating."

"Did the replicators detect the stargate?"

"Possible, I don't know."

A new alarm went off alerting the crew to a tactical event.

"They've launched drones, thousands sir!"

"Activate CILS, take them down!"

"They're not heading for us. They, they're forming up into some sort of grid, a search grid?"

"They are looking for the gate, will they find it?"

"Checking… Yes, they will!" a lieutenant said after she had checked the trajectories of the drones.

"Crap. Okay, I'm declaring this mission a failure. Signal our escorts to come about and enter hyperspace at once, we're heading home. Once our escorts are gone activate the hyperdrive and get us out of here."

A number of 'yes sir's followed in acknowledgement. "Also signal Midway 'mission outcome: Downfall, say again, Downfall.'"

The ship's hyper drive engine trembled as its power usage increased hundredfold, before ceasing all activities.

"Hyperdrive is down!"

"Escorts report the same!"

"Have the escorts reform up on us. Set course for the far side of the sun, let's try to outrun them. Get me a direct line to Sheppard at Midway. Fix this shit!" he yelled as he made a gesture to a screen which had a red 'Hyperdrive off-line' flashing.

Ten seconds later Sheppard appeared on his bridge, as a hologram.

"General Sheppard. The gate's been detected and will be destroyed before it can reach the sun. My task force has also lost all hyperdrive capabilities."

"_What are you doing now?"_

"I've set course to the other side of the sun, I'm trying to put some distance between us and the replicator ships coming for us. They've sent their entire goddamn fleet." General Flannigan said. He was distracted by an ensign who approached him with a tablet computer. Afraid to interrupt the general, the ensign simple gave the tablet to the general.

"_What is it general?"_

"It appears that a powerful hyperspace distorting something is coming through the open gate. As long as it is open we won't be able to enter hyperspace." Flannigan said. "Sir, request permission to shut down or blow up the gate."

"_Denied. You've got the better part of their fleet coming after you right."_ Sheppard said, he didn't wait for a reply. _"Plot an entry point for the entire fleet, it's got to be just outside weapons range of the replicator warships. I'm gonna jump the entire fleet in, finish this before it grows any further out of hand. ETA 2 minutes. Will the gate survive that long?"_

A lieutenant who was listening in quickly did some calculations and put the outcome on a screen.

"Just about, it depends on how many drones are required to blow up an active stargate."

"_Well, make sure it's gone by the time I arrive, I don't want my ships jumping in anywhere near an exploding stargate."_

"Will do, General." Flannigan said with a nod. He turned to the bridge crew. "Let's get that plot going and prep the gate to blow, if need be, we'll help it along a bit."

The crew immediately went to work. The tactical officers started plotting attack patterns and intercept routes for the incoming fleet.

1 minute and 50 seconds later the gate exploded. Just as the shockwave subsided the three carriers and their escorts exited hyperspace. Falcons and Vipers were launched immediately and were quickly joined by drones from the drone carriers. Next were the battleships and battle cruisers. The battleships and battle cruisers moved at full power to get into range of the Replicator warships. As the drones and fighters passed the battleships the first Replicator drone was fired. Seconds later ten thousand drones had been launched. Thirty seconds over a hundred thousand had been launched. The drones launched by the drone carriers were redirected to the incoming replicator drones. Meanwhile the battleships and battle cruisers got into range of the Replicator warships and opened fire with all they got.

Lieutenant colonel Adam 'Jolly' Banks, CAG Enterprise air wing, led from the front, always had, always would, till the day he died. He and the other pilots from the Enterprise were flying the advanced Viper Mk9/F-311. It was a combination of the best technology the Tau'ri Federation had to offer, combined with the best experiences of the Colonial fleet air arm. It made for one of the best fighters ever built.

"_All Enterprise squadrons, this is Jolly, You're weapons hot, good hunting!"_ Banks ordered to his air wing. He himself activated his long range missiles, it might not do much good against the advanced shields of the replicator ships, but because of the 'low' yield of the missile, the replicators wouldn't do much against it and in numbers, it might just be enough to count.

"_Red Zero, Fox One, Fox One!"_ he said as he fired his two long range missiles. Immediately a loud alert shot through his headset and the HUD indicated both missiles had malfunctioned. _Fuck, my missiles failed, repeat, I've got bad missiles!"_

He was pissed to say the least. Not only did he not fire his missiles, the things were still attacked to his wings, creating a larger target for any hostile fire. What truly shocked him, were the calls from his entire air wing, reporting the exact same.

"_Enterprise actual, my entire air wing's got malfunctioning weapons, I repeat, long range missiles all failed. Going in for close range."_

"_CAG, Be aware, George Hammond and Prometheus air groups report the same, suggest RTB for examination."_

"_Negative, short range missiles and guns still check out, we can take 'em if we get close enough."_

There was a short pause before a response came: _"Good Hunting."_

"_Alright people, our drones are about to take out their first wave, watch out for any stragglers and maintain your spread!" _Jolly instructed his pilots.

A second unexpected event happened. His fighter started to pitch up. Banks grabbed the stich tightly and pushed down to counteract. Once that didn't work, he started throwing switched in an attempt to override all kinds of protocols. _"Enterprise, I've lost control of my bird, I'm going vertical, and override doesn't work!"_ he said as he cursed internally. Nothing worked, not even switching the engines off. Out of nowhere the cockpit was lit brightly by the flairs from the two long range missiles, together with the shaking that accompanied the launch. _"Enterprise, CAG, my long range missiles just fired! They appear to be going nowhere!"_ He looked to his left and right. At both sides he saw the other Vipers go 'vertical' and launch missiles. _"Enterprise, CAG, all Vipers appear to be going vertical and launch missiles, what the fuck is going on."_

"_CAG, Enterprise. All Vipers and Falcons are disengaging, we've lost all control, and we're trying to determine what's going on. We've ruled out the Replicators though."_

Before Banks could respond his world lit up brightly once again. This time it wasn't a missile engine, it was the supposed class of the drones. Except, all drones were destroyed. Seconds later all energy and projectile weapons slammed into an invisible wall that had appeared between the two fleets.

Sheppard and Emerson both looked in horror as their fleet's weapons fire was reduced to nothing. Their fighters had somehow disengaged and some sort of massive shield had appeared between the two fleets. Fortunately this worked both ways.

"Replicator ships are intensifying their fire." Someone reported.

"Do the same, energy weapons only, hold the drones till we get through this… something." Sheppard ordered. "And find out what's happening to our fighters."

A number of 'yes sirs' followed, Sheppard walked over to a captain who was working on the fighter problem. "What's the problem?"

"I don't know sir." The captain said as he directed two lieutenants. "Propulsion and weapons have been shut down on all craft, including the ones aboard the carriers. We have found no signals going or coming from the craft. This shouldn't be happening."

"Well it is, can't we restart the fighters or something?"

"The chief tried, he pulled all connections and wires to the engines, they just wouldn't fire, same for our missiles."

Sheppard felt a hand settle on his shoulder, an electric current accompanied it, and he remembered it. He turned around in surprise. "Chaya?" he asked as he saw the glowing form of an ascended being turn into a solid, recognizable being.

"_John, you've got to stop."_ She said as she looked over to a screen showing the Tau'ri fleet firing at the barrier.

Meanwhile the entire CIC had gone quiet and was watching the conversation.

"Why?" he said. "They're replicators. If we don't take them out they will take us out."

"_Because they are our children, just like you are."_

"Didn't stop you from trying to destroy them." Sheppard stated.

"_It was a mistake, we now see that we have to take responsibility for the life we have created, and by that we mean both the human populations as well as the replicators."_

"Replicator ships have ceased firing." Someone reported.

Sheppard stared at Chaya's face, trying to see any sign of deception. Reluctantly he turned to general Emerson, "Paul, all vessels, cease fire." He turned back to Chaya, "I want control over all my aircraft, now. I'll recall them into defensive formations once they are back under our control."

Chaya blinked once, _"Done"._ Emerson turned to the major directing the Enterprise's squadrons and nodded. The major got the cue and recalled all fighters.

"What now?" Emerson asked, breaking the silence. _"At this moment the Replicators are offered a proper peace offering."_

"And what does that mean?" Sheppard asked sarcastically.

"_For some time, the replicators have been yearning for one ability they have not been able to master because of their mechanical existence."_

"Ascension? You're gonna ascend all the replicators? Are you nuts!" Sheppard burst out, shuddering at the ramifications. The possibility of ascension had already stirred up several new religions on Earth centered on ascending.

"_No, you must remember the planet of the Cloister. The offer we extend to the Replicators is as follows: Cease all hostilities immediately, check. Once and agreement has been made with the Tau'ri, the Replicators' consciousness' shall be placed in biological bodies. Just like you did with Doctor Weir, remember. Once completed the replicators will settle on the planet of the cloister, the Tau'ri will provide any transport required, as well as any supplies required for the replicator community until such a time comes they can support themselves. At the Cloister they shall follow the local rituals and ascended beings will evaluate and aid the replicators. If a replicator is found to be mentally suitable for ascension he or she will be aided by the ascended. Once ascended, they shall retain a position in a sub-plain of existence where they will be monitored by the other ascended. Over time they may be allowed to rise to the full plane of higher existence."_

"Just to get a clear picture, what kind of timeframe are we looking at? And how many Replicators are there?" Emerson asked, cutting Sheppard off.

"_The replicators have already agreed to the terms, which leaves the Tau'ri Federation. Once you agree as well, the conversion will commence, this might take several months, simply because of the sheer number of Replicators, nearly fifteen million. Transport should not be so hard and will depend on the rate of conversion. After that, the Tau'ri Federation might be required to supply the Cloister settlement for anywhere between five and twenty years. That's in normal years, with the threat of the Wraith gone, there is no more need for a time dilation bubble."_

"I actually meant the ascending and such, but okay." Emerson said.

"What kind of assurances can you give us the Replicators won't turn on you once enough of them have been permitted into your plane of existence? I'd rather fight an already powerful enemy now, than leave a nearly undefeatable superpower for my grandkids." Sheppard said.

"_John, as you very well know, we can see into someone more clearly than they can themselves. Part of ascension is letting all grudges, all hatred go, we will know when someone harbors ill thoughts."_

"I must first confer with the leadership, we'll remain in position until a decision has been made." Sheppard said.

"_Very well, I'll give you some privacy then. One more thing. Tell General O'Neill, Daniel Jackson and George Hammond say hi and are of the opinion this is the best solution."_

"Hammond's up there as well?" Emerson asked.

"_Yes."_ Chaya said before fading away.

"Phew." Sheppard said. "Let's stand down to condition two, I want a reinforced CAP on patrol, bring the rest back. I guess it's time to make a call."

"Let's do that in my cabin." Emerson said. "Lieutenant, get us an emergency conference with the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the War Cabinet."

Both walked the twenty meters to Emerson's cabin. They had some time before the JCOS and WC were ready.

"Shit john, you knows what this means?" he asked trying to think of all the things that could happen.

"All those people who think ascension is reserved for those who either make it their life purpose or who for another reason deserve it, such as heroic fighting, will now get the idea, that if they misbehave enough, and threaten to kill as much people as possible, the Ascended will give them a hand."

"I meant all that military hardware out there." Emerson said. "Aurora's, millions of ancient drones, a copy of Atlantis, god knows what else they've got down there."

"Shit, that could turn the war with the Dominion in our favor."

Sheppard stood up, "Chaya!"

Chaya appeared almost immediately, _"You have not yet made up your mind have you?"_

"No, I need to know something. Will we get all the ships, the drones, the city, everything the replicators have now? Will we get it all intact without contest?"

"_I never figured you to be such a materialistic person John. What has changed?"_ She asked in surprise.

"We're fighting a war against an enemy many times stronger than the replicators here, we need any help we can get. All that hardware out there might just be enough to sway the reluctant members of the leadership in your favor."

"_My favor? Yours as well I'd say."_ She blinked again. _"Yes, the Replicators promise to leave everything to the Tau'ri Federation."_

"Good, I'll do my best to sell this deal to the leadership, thank you Chaya."

_You're welcome, see you soon."_ Chaya said as she disappeared again, but not before General O'Neill got a sight of her.

"_Sheppard, which ancient are you hanging out with now?"_

"Chaya Sar, sir. Remember I told you about her when we swapped stories about all the ancients we had met?"

"_I remember the beer being very cold."_

"It was in Antarctica, that beer had been buried in the snow for over ten years."

"_Right."_ O'Neill said.

Meanwhile the other members of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the War Cabinet had joined in as well. Some had visibly just awoken to attend the holo-conference.

"Mister President," Sheppard started, "In our attempt to wipe out the Replicator threat in the Pegasus Galaxy we've stumbled on an unexpected third party."

"_Don't tell me you've gotten us into another war Sheppard." _ Ryan asked.

"Eh, no sir. On the contrary sir, we might just be able to pack up here, and take a sizable collection of ancient technology home with us."

This got everyone's attention, and they all straightened up at the idea of gaining large amounts of ancient technology.

"_Quit teasing and get to the point General."_ Ryan said. Wherever the president was, it was either very late, or very early.

"Sir, the Ascended have intervened. They are offering the Replicators ascension in return for an end to the hostilities and no more fighting and hatred against anyone else. In return we have to help them resettle and supply such a settlement until it becomes self-sustainable. And they will leave everything to us. Everything!"

The JCOS and WC members were shocked by the idea of ascended Replicators.

"_John,"_ O'Neill started, _"At times I have been accused of having an overactive imagination, but I can't shake the image of tiny replicator spiders running rampant throughout the higher plane of existence, them destroying everything with unimaginable powers, before coming down to consume our plane of existence."_

"I understand sir, and I agree. But I have been informed such fears are unwarranted, apparently General Hammond and Doctor Jackson are of the opinion this is the best, and safest way. The Replicators should only be able to ascend once they have rid themselves of all aggressive and hostile thoughts and intent."

O'Neill clearly had trouble controlling his emotions upon hearing two of his friends had ascended. With a shaking voice he was able to create a question, _"Have you spoken to them personally?"_

"No sir, Chaya Sar relayed the message. I don't think she was lying about it sir."

"_Mister President," _O'Neill started, _"the ascended don't lie, they may disguise their answer in riddles and tales, but they never lie."_

"_General, what exactly is considered aggressive and hostile? To the replicators, replication may be the same as fornication is for humans. It would be neither aggressive nor hostile."_ Secretary of defense Ricker asked. Several others nodded in agreement with the question.

"Well, I can't speak for this once the replicators are ascended, I don't know how the ascended realm works. But for the time they spend at the cloister they would be using flesh and blood bodies, unable to replicate, except perhaps through fornication, not sure about that either though." Sheppard said, drawing some chuckles from the chiefs of staff.

"_General Sheppard, is there some way we could speak with an ascended being? Perhaps doctor Jackson of General Hammond?"_ Ryan asked.

"I'll try sir." Sheppard said as he looked around, "Chaya?" he said.

Mere seconds later Chaya appeared. _"What is it John?"_

"We'd like to talk to Doctor Jackson or General Hammond."

"_Give me a minute."_ Chaya said. Once she had disappeared the members started talking with each other about what it could mean for the war and ascension in general.

"_Mister President."_ Someone interrupted. He appeared to be everywhere around them

"_Daniel! How've you been? What's up? You don't call, don't write."_ O'Neill mocked.

"_Sorry Jack, I've been busy writing the new rules for the ascended realm._" Daniel apologized.

"_Really, it takes you that long to copy the prime directive from Star Trek?"_ O'Neill said sarcastically.

"_It's a bit more complicated, the ascended like their rules, and they want a rule for every single event. There are those who prefer guidelines, but it just wouldn't work."_

"_I'm sorry to interrupt your reunion, perhaps you can continue it later," _Ryan said, _"Doctor Jackson, what kind of assurances can you give us the replicators won't take over the ascended realm through non aggressive or hostile actions or intent?"_

"_Ascended beings cannot multiply in the ascended realm. Most of you will be familiar with the tales of Heracles, the son of Zeus. Zeus, in fact, was an ascended ancient, his mother a mere mortal being. Heracles was conceived in the lower plain of existence and could not enter the ascended realm on his own. The replicators won't be able to multiply while in the ascended realm, and any sort of buildup on the normal plane of existence by the replicators would be detected and stopped. But this is of no importance. The need to replicate, to multiply, is derived from programming, nothing more. This programming would first be removed, as well as the aggressive and hostile programming their creators had originally implanted."_ Jackson explained.

"So you're gonna make them peace loving, tree hugging, hippies?" Sheppard concluded.

"_Well, let's just say we're gonna give them the ability to develop their own personality without the hindrance of any old programming."_ Jackson replied.

"_Okay Doctor Jackson, thank you for dropping by and explaining this to us."_ Ryan said.

"_No problem mister president, I really feel this is the best solution. The ancients who created the replicators really feel responsible, on a level I have never seen before, there's really a concentrated effort to make this end well for all parties."_

"_I think we understand Daniel. Say, you mind popping by once in a while? We've got some catching up to do you know." _O'Neill said.

Daniel nodded before fading away.

"_Okay people, I've made up my mind."_ Ryan said. _"I want a show of hands of those in favor for this proposal."_

Nobody stuck up their hands, all watching the rest looking for someone to follow. O'Neill was the first to raise his hand, he was quickly followed by the vice-chairman and the general of the space forces. The secretary of defense and the other chiefs followed soon. The directors of the TFSA, TFCIA and TFBI followed quickly and were followed by the secretaries of State and Treasury. President Ryan was last nodding in approval of the unanimous vote.

"_Okay." _Ryan said. _"General Sheppard, you have my approval to accept the ascended proposal with regards to the Replicator conflict, if you need anything signed, you know where to find me."_ The entire conversation would have been recorded and archived somewhere safe for use in history books and documentaries.

"Yes sir, I'll get right on it, thank you." Sheppard said.

The various connections were quickly terminated once the president signed off.

Sheppard turned to Emerson, "I guess I've redeemed myself for damaging your ship, Paul."

"I guess so."

"Chaya." Sheppard said as he walked out of the cabin towards the CIC, Emerson followed him. By the time they reached the CIC Chaya had joined him.

"Chaya, the president has accepted the ascended proposal to end the hostilities between the Replicators and the Tau'ri Federation, as well as the plan to relocate all replicators to the planet of the Cloister where the replicators can prepare themselves for ascension. The Tau'ri Federation will do its best to support these actions with provisions, transport and other means." Sheppard said formally.

"_Thank you John. I suggest you join me and some others on the replicator settlement to confirm this solution and get started." _

A lieutenant reported the ascended wall had disappeared and the replicator warships had stood down all weapons and shields and were returning to the settlement.

"Okay, I'll meet you there in, say, fifteen minutes?"

"_Yes, you will be able to beam down to the control room once you are ready, I will await you there."_ Chaya said before she disappeared.

"Signal to the fleet, Stand down from battle stations, safe all weapons, set condition three, recall all fighters and set shields to minimum." Sheppard ordered. "Have the Enterprise and her escorts make for the settlement. The rest of the fleet is to assume a non-aggressive posture and remain on station until told otherwise."

A chorus of 'yes sir's' followed and not much later the Enterprise, her two escorting drone carriers and five battle cruisers were underway for the replicator settlement.

"Paul, I need a detail ready to assume command of the facilities on the surface."

"Sure thing, do you need a marine escort?"

"Ceremonial only, no more than half a dozen. Also contact Midway and have Larrin prepare a more extensive command team to be sent by stargate."

"You've got anyone in mind to command such a team?" Emerson asked.

"Larrin. It's not like she's got much to do anyways."

Ten minutes later the Enterprise had assumed a geostationary orbit over the replicator city.

"Sir, we've got a lock on the destination, are you ready for beam transport?"

Sheppard checked the team which had assembled around him. "Yes."

The team, which included six marines in ceremonial uniforms and about a dozen officers ready to interface with the ancient technology in the control room, was beamed away. They appeared in front of the stargate. They were awaited by Chaya and two other ascended as well as Oberoth with several replicators.

"John." Chaya greeted.

"Chaya." He replied.

"I believe you've met Oberoth, the leader of the Replicators."

"Yes. Unfortunately." John replied.

"Perhaps we can forget what happened between our two people's." Oberoth suggested.

"It's hard to forget someone sticking a hand in your head and screwing with ya."

An eerie silence followed.

"John." Chaya encouraged him.

"Fine, I guess we can move past it."

"Excellent." Chaya said with a smile.

"I see you've brought a team with you to assume command of the facilities on the surface." Oberoth said as he indicated the people standing behind John. "Perhaps we should get started with giving your people access to our main systems."

"That might be a good idea, lead the way." John replied.

John's earpiece activated as someone tried to contact him, _"General Sheppard, this is Enterprise Actual."_

John tapped his earpiece to answer the call, "Go ahead Actual."

"_We've got four large hyperspace tracks bearing down on the planet, ETA 10 minutes, they are very large."_

"Copy, I'll find out what it's about. In the meantime I want you to retreat to the rest of the fleet and leave one battle cruiser in orbit."

"_Understood, Actual out."_

"Oberoth, would you know anything about four objects bearing down on us?" John asked cautiously.

"Yes, I'll show you, come with me." Oberoth led Sheppard and Chaya to a screen showing the schematics of the entire city. It was much larger than Atlantis, even with the shipyards and facilities. As Oberoth tapped the screen it highlighted four empty areas within the city.

"When our recent conflict started to take on larger proportions we decided to secure the survival of our species by sending some of it away to lay low far away, waiting for a time where they could once again come to grow. As you know, the best base for a colony is a fully functioning city."

"What are you saying, what's coming?" Sheppard asked.

"We sent out four copies of Atlantis, they are now returning home."

"I see I've left you speechless." Oberoth observed.

"Quite." Sheppard managed. He tapped his earpiece, "Enterprise actual, Sheppard here."

"_Enterprise actual here, what's up?"_

"We've got some friends inbound, make sure all ships know we're friends now and they are to stand down."

"_Copy that sir."_ There was a pause, _"Sir, we just received word from Larrin. She's got a command team ready and is requesting permission to gate in."_

"Granted, I'll make sure she's welcome. Sheppard out."

"Oberoth, you'll be receiving a wormhole any minute now, it's a larger command staff who'll establish a proper command of the facilities here. They will also help you transfer into flesh and blood bodies and take care of your transport to the cloister."

"Very well."

As on cue the stargate activated and once the wormhole was opened Larrin radioed in.

"_Sheppard, are we clear to come through?"_

"Yes Larrin, all clear."

Larrin stepped through the stargate no more than ten seconds later. She was followed by a dozen heavily armed marines.

"Nice company you keep." Sheppard said as he indicated the marines.

"S.O.P. Mister general." Larrin said mockingly. "Federation rule something something, all Federation military facilities need to have a permanent contingent of armed and trained military personnel."

"Right." Sheppard said as more people stepped through the stargate, most were technicians and were carrying their equipment with them which ranged from wrenches to tablet PC's capable of interfacing with ancient tech.

Oberoth stepped up to meet Larrin. "I am known as Oberoth, will you be the Federation commander of this facility?"

Larrin looked up at Sheppard who only nodded. "I Guess so. I'm Larrin, would you mind if my techs go run free through the city?"

"They are free to do so. I must point out there are several ships about to land within the city, they might want to hold off on straying too far from the city ship until after the other ships have landed."

"Okay. You're putting your Aurora's down? We can take control of them in orbit you know." Larrin said.

"He's not talking about Aurora's, nor any other warships."

"Then wha…" Larrin stopped once she realized what he meant.

"Four city ships are about to land." Sheppard said. "Now that the both of you have been introduced I suggest you get to work while I enjoy the sight of a city ship landing."

Sheppard didn't wait for any response and simply walked to the balcony at the back of the control tower.

As Sheppard entered the balcony he saw the first city ship hover at about a mile height, it had already slowed down and was slowly settling down. It reminded him of the landing he performed with Atlantis, it wasn't exactly as controlled as this one though. A loud boom signed the entrance of the second city ship entering the atmosphere, he could see the glowing shields of the ship as they cooled down from the entry.

"Beautiful isn't it?" someone asked.

"Chaya." Sheppard said as he turned around. Chaya approached him and kissed him. "Hello to you too."

"I've been wanting to do that for a while."

"I can tell." He said as he smiled.

"Really?"

"Yeah, must be that connection lingering around from last time."

"How 'bout we make some new ones?" Chaya suggested.

"Great idea." Sheppard said. He looked over at the crowded control room. "My place, ten minutes?"

"I'll be there." Chaya responded before she disappeared.

Sheppard walked back into the control room and started down the stairs. "Larrin, dial Midway, I'll be there if you need me. Once you get settled in prepare an initial report for me so I can update the brass."

"Got it Sheppard, give me, eh, 48 hours."

"Make it 72." Sheppard said after he glanced at the balcony. The stargate opened and he immediately walked through.

"My my, what a generosity." Larrin muttered to the shimmering pool.

Colonial presidential bunker

Government plaza, Caprica City, Caprica

14.40 hours, March 26

"Bill, you're not going!" Roslin yelled as Adama stormed out of the president's office.

"Why huh?! Why can't I go retrieve my son's body?" Adama replied.

"It's to fracking dangerous! Think about Lee's children, they've already lost their father, you want them to lose their grandfather too?"

"I'll bring my flight suit! And a medic. And a secondary raptor!" Adama replied.

"That's not what I'm talking about and you know it!"

"I've got a chance to get my son back so I can bury him, give him a proper send off to the gods. Give his kids a grave to mourn their father!" Adama said with tears forming in his eyes.

"Thousands of families want to bury their little boy or girl but can't, why do you have to when it's so dangerous!"

"Because I can, that's why. Because I'm an Admiral with the colonial fleet and have the opportunity to do so."

"Well," Roslin didn't know what to say, "If you're going, so am I!"

"What the hell for!?"

"Ehm, ehm" Roslin didn't know what she could say. As she scanned the room for clues she saw a picture of the two of them, taken at a Cylon war remembrance, they had placed a wreath to remember the dead. "To place a wreath at the CIC, to remember the sacrifice the crewmembers of the Pegasus, and all other ships in the fleet we lost up there, made."

Adama sighed. "My raptor's leaving in twenty minutes, you better hustle to get into that flight suit. I'm not gonna wait."

"Damn you!" she yelled as she scrambled to get a secretary to arrange a wreath and a flight suit for her. Once her secretary had gotten the order she hurried after Adama, her protection detail following close, the lead agent objecting vigorously.

Fifty minutes later the two raptors approached the battlefield. It was a carnage consisting primarily of a dozen Dominion battle cruisers, but also the distinct wreckage of the Pegasus. The Pegasus had been split in three distinct parts due to the central location of the self-detonated nukes. One hanger bay was flung into a Dominion light cruiser, which had stopped the hanger bay, but destroyed the cruiser. The other hanger bay had been flung away from the battle and was still on a course for nowhere. The third part of the Pegasus, the alligator-like head which contained the CIC had rammed a Dominion battle cruiser head-on. The back half of the battle cruiser was still stuck into the front of the Pegasus.

As the raptors got closer they had a close up view of the remains. The forward section was covered with breaches as hostile weapons fire had punched through the armor and hull. The dozens of breaches made entry a cakewalk.

Adama, who was seated beside the pilot, gave the pilot instructions to circle the ship to search for the best entry point. As they neared the observation deck Adama instructed the pilot to take a closer look. As the neared to about ten meters the pilot held steady. Adama activated the searchlight and aimed it at the observation deck. Some trash appeared to be floating inside the deck. Without warning a face floated in view, quickly followed by the rest of the body. The crewmember appeared to be dead. Adama leaned in to have a better look, "Strange," he muttered.

"What do you mean?" The pilot asked.

"What's a deckhand doing at the observation deck during a battle? With a marine carbine?"

"That is... Whoah!" the pilot called out as a Dominion body also floated into view, bumping the Colonial out of the way.

"Perhaps from that battle cruiser." Adama stated. "Raptor two, commence a thorough life signs scan of both Pegasus and the Dominion cruiser, start with Pegasus."

"_Affirmative Admiral."_

"Let's continue the search for the best entry point." Adama said.

Eventually they reached the aft part of the wreckage, where the rest of the ship used to be. The sight surprised Adama, the CIC destruction shelter had protected the CIC and adjacent corridors and rooms against the damage from the detonating nukes. The destruction shelters had long been a part of Colonial Battlestars. At first, only the medical ward was located inside a destruction shelter. Since the discovery of lighter and cheaper, as well as stronger materials, the CIC and Flag Bridge, engineering, and the four main crew areas were all located within their own destruction shelters. The Engineering section appeared to have been destroyed by internal explosions, probably the reactors, while the crew areas were all vaporized by the detonation of the nukes aboard. Only the CIC was far enough away to not be destroyed by the detonations.

"_Raptor one, this is raptor 2. We're getting very strong interference here. So far we've only been able to get down one or two decks on Pegasus, all clear so far. The battle cruiser's got some pockets of air, but none with life."_

"Copy that raptor 2. Group up with us and prepare for boarding at a breach near dorsal gun turret three, we'll enter there and make our way down to the CIC." Adama said.

"_Copy, we're on our way."_

A couple of minutes later both raptors had touched down just a couple of meters away from the breach which was just three meters across. Both raptors decompressed their compartments and opened their hatches. Adama, Roslin and a dozen marines clad in flight suits got out leaving only the pilots. All marines carried the standard Marine carbine, while Adama only had the standard Colonial Fleet sidearm. Roslin only carried the wreath.

Eight marines led the way, Adama escorted Roslin and the other four marines secured their rear. As they stepped through the breach Adama warned Roslin for a blob of plasma which hadn't exploded yet. Once they were through the breach and onto the deck of a corridor they activated their magnetic boots. At Adama's instructions the lead marines made for a hatch, not twenty meters away. They turned the wheel on the hatch, but the hatch wouldn't open. They pulled as hard as they could, but got nowhere.

"Now what?" Roslin asked.

"Plan B." Adama said, he walked over to another hatch, this one had CAUTION stamped on it.

"What's in there?"

"It's where the rounds for dorsal gun turret three are loaded into the elevator that will bring them to the guns from the elevators which bring them up from the magazines."

"And that will get us where?"

"Deeper down into the ship. There's a small shaft for emergencies. It would have allowed the crew to lift rounds to the guns from the magazines in case of a power failure to the elevator. It's usually closed for obvious reasons, but we should be able to open it from this side." Adama explained as he opened the hatch. As he climbed into the room he was surprised as he saw the opened shaft. He looked down it to see of all hatches had been opened.

"You already opened it? That was quick." Roslin said in surprise.

"No, it already was which is strange." Adama commented. Four marines started climbing down the shaft. "Pegasus didn't suffer any power loss to her forward sections, these guns were fully operational until the nukes went off." He explained. "Let's go down." He motioned for the hatch as several more marines climbed down.

The first marines had already cleared the exit of the shaft, just one deck above the main forward magazine, they had also cleared the adjacent corridor and waited for the Admiral and President.

"Where to now sir?" A marine asked.

"Aft. We'll go through the C-deck small-arms locker, the adjacent firing range, a mess hall and an aid post, which should bring us just four frames aft of the CIC, and four decks below. Just twenty meters further there are stairs which should bring us to the same deck the CIC's on. From there it should be a cakewalk."

They made it to the small-arms locker without incident. Once they got there though they saw plasma marks on the hatch. Adama sent two marines around a corner to check it out. Once the marines got back they reported two dead Dominions, killed by small caliber rounds, most likely those from a Colonial fleet service weapon. They didn't find any dead crewmembers though.

Two marines opened the hatch to the locker and went in followed by four more marines to clear it out first. Once they gave the all-clear Adama and Roslin entered the locker as well. The locker itself appeared to have been cleared out. Some bullets were lying on the floor, but all cases had been removed or emptied.

While Roslin and Adama were surveying the locker two marines were at the hatch to the firing range, it wouldn't open.

"Sir, the door's locked, the gauge says there's still some air in there."

Adama walked over and took a look at the gauge. It showed yellow, but very close to red. He got a flashlight from his vest and turned it on before aiming it through the window which was built into the hatch. The bundle of light searched the room before finally resting on several dead crewmembers.

"There's no one alive in there, override the lockout." Adama ordered.

The marines did as asked and they managed to get the door open. A gust of wind rushed out as the air was emptied from the range. Several marines first cleared out the range while two marines checked the dead crewmembers. "Sir, they appeared to have either suffocated or passed from dehydration."

"Poor souls." Roslin said.

"Must've gotten stuck in here without supplies or a way out. We may find many more like this."

Roslin just nodded. She got the way out Adama offered her. She didn't take it.

"Let's push on." Roslin said, pushing the horror that might be coming out of her mind.

As they exited the range they got into a corridor which led to the mess hall. Again they found several crewmembers dead. Some of them appeared the have been killed by Dominion weapons fire. The dead were composed of aircrew members, pilots, a CIC officer and two cooks, indicating a Dominion boarding action and somewhat organized counterattack. The rest appeared to have suffocated quickly. At the end of the corridor they found the hatch to the mess hall. It wasn't locked and the marines were able to open it to secure the area. They were confronted by a mix of dead Dominion and Pegasus crewmembers. Some on both sides had been shot but nearly half appeared to have suffocated.

They quickly crossed the mess hall and entered another corridor. At the end of the corridor they neared a staircase. It wasn't the one they were looking for, this one led down, but they did have to pass through. The marines tried to open the hatch but once again found a pressurized area.

"Sir, the gauge shows green, there's still plenty of air behind it, what do you want us to do?"

Adama grabbed a hammer from one of the marines and banged it on the hatch. He did it a couple of times and they waited a couple of minutes for a reply to come. Eventually none came and Adama ordered it opened. Instead of overriding the safeties and getting a gust of air in the face the marines placed a small charge at an overhead vent. Once it blew the air was quickly vacated without harming any of them.

The marines opened the hatch and entered it. There they found a dead crewmember. One of the marines rolled the crewmember over to search for injuries.

"Sir, she blew her brains out." The marine reported as Adama stood over him.

"All hatches show red on the other side, she must've been trapped in here for a while before the thirst and hunger got to her."

"How long do you think she was trapped in here?" Roslin asked.

"Probably not so long. Most of the air was still good so she didn't use much of it. Probably did it after a day or two, with no way of getting out you're dead anyways, might as well take the easiest way out." A marine commented.

"Let's get moving. Marine take that hatch." Adama said.

The marine and some of his comrades opened the hatch indicated by Adama and pushed on.

They quickly found the aid station, it had been raided for supplies but no dead or wounded appeared to have been there.

Not much later they reached the staircase they needed to get up to the same deck CIC was on. The staircase itself didn't show any sign of damage or combat. Once they opened the door and got onto the corridor leading to the CIC they were surrounded by the signs of battle. Dozens of bodies lay across one another, both Dominion and Pegasus personnel. Scorch marks on the walls indicated the ferocity of combat and amount of grenades used. Some of the dead appeared to have died of suffocation after being wounded.

"_Watch out for unexploded ordnance, hands gripping grenades and shit."_ The lead marine warned.

Despite the warning the marines made good progress heading for the CIC, where they arrived not much later. The only thing that separated them from the corridor adjacent the CIC was a security door. Currently it was closed and the glass was somehow darkened, light wouldn't penetrate the darkness at all.

A couple of marines had gathered at the door while waiting for Adama to arrive and order the breach. Instead of ordering a breach Adama pulled out a keycard. The marine, somewhat stunned, swiped the card and got a green light indicating an accepted card. As the doors slid open a Dominion towered over the marine who had just turned away to return the card. Before anyone could do anything, the Dominion fell upon the marine taking him down to the ground with him. The other marines didn't waste a second and opened fire at close range. After over a hundred bullets had turned the Dominion's head and back into mush Adama got the sense to call cease fire. The marine was pulled from underneath the Dominion unscathed and the Dominion was turned over. The Dominion soldier appeared to have suffocated a long time ago.

As everyone recovered from the fright they pushed into the corridor adjacent to the CIC. Dozens of bodies lay across their path. From the quick glance at the area Adama concluded it had contained quite a number of people camping out, clothes and rations lay everywhere. The doors giving access to the CIC had been destroyed, the glass shattered into thousands of pieces. Surprisingly there weren't any bodies in the CIC, only piles of clothes. In the back of the CIC a secondary access hatch had its window blown out by Dominion weapons fire. Two marines who cleared the corridor behind the hatch reported there had been a hull breach there.

"Where are all the bodies?" Roslin asked.

"Sir! I've got Admiral's insignia here." A marine said as he held up a jacket with Admiral's insignia on the collar.

Adama immediately made his way over to the marine. He grabbed the jacket and immediately noticed the blood stained hole in the stomach area. The marine had grabbed the nearest pair of pants and searched the pockets. He got some stuff from it. He held it out for Adama, "Anything familiar sir?"

"Adama searched through the stuff, he found a lighter. "Yes, these are Lee's belongings. This is where he died." Adama said as he held the lighter in his hands. Eventually he transferred the lighter to one of the pockets on the flight suit. He did the same with the viper wings, battlestar commander badge, advanced tactical training badge and the admiral's insignia. He'd give those to Lee's kids once they were old enough to earn them.

"Where are the bodies?" Roslin asked.

"I don't know, they should've been here. All his belongings are here." Adama said as he looked around trying to get a feel for the last moments of his son. "I guess the CIC was being attacked by those Dominions," Adama said as he pointed at a group of dominion near a corner. "In the battle, someone must've shot the glass of that hatch, removing all the air. Lee and the rest either died because of the battle, or the lack of air."

"That doesn't explain the lack of bodies around here." Roslin said. "Unless, you think." She started but didn't finish.

"No way. He couldn't have. Do you think he did it?"

"What? Ascended? It is the only explanation for what happened." Roslin said.

"Perhaps. But why didn't they help that crewwoman in the staircase?"

"Perhaps she was too quick with blowing her brains out? Perhaps those who remained here could have saved her?"

"Doesn't matter now anyway." Adama said. He turned to a marine holding a camera, "Are you about done?"

"Just one more minute sir." The marine replied. Another marine retrieved the hard drives containing the logs and navigational codes from a storage bay. Adama emptied the safe which contained the handwritten logs, some reports and a handwritten letter by the president. Het put it all in a pocket of his flight suit.

Roslin sought a place to place the wreath.

"Okay everyone, let's move out. Same route and formation as the way in." Adama said.

The way out was uneventful, some more photos were made.

Once they got to the hull they entered the waiting raptors and headed back for Caprica city.

Atlantis

SigInt division, Defense Intelligence Agency

0942 hours, May 1

The SigInt division was tasked with gathering and understanding all kinds of signals and digital information. It included operating a large amount of secretive satellites, as well as operating in cyberspace. Most of the twelve thousand members of the SigInt division were housed somewhere on Earth, but a small elite group of experienced analysts and operators were stationed on Atlantis. Atlantis offered an immediate connection to all satellites in use, as well as the information contained in the Ancient database. Furthermore the same database could be used to decode, translate or interpret information. Atlantis was also the place where all intelligence agencies worked together, no boundaries were present which made working together and sharing information much easier. It was also the only fully neural workplace in existence, users simply logged on using their ATA gene. The neural environment was actually similar to a normal office floor, except for the lack of computers or any means of data input, everything was done by mental command. Beyond that the staff still walked around and made small talk at the water cooler.

All separate intelligence divisions had their own division watch commander who reported to the general watch commander, usually a Colonel.

One of the SigInt officers was reviewing a data stream coming in from Caprica. The data had been recorded by a very old satellite, somehow it had remained invisible to the Dominion, survived all battles and debris and was still operational. It appeared to have caught a holographic conference between some Dominion on the surface and some aboard a mother ship. This wasn't so unusual, holographic transmissions between Dominion warships in orbit and on the surface were quite common, but this transmission carried a special kind of encryption which grabbed the interest of the officer. Furthermore, the mother ship in question had arrived just a few days ago and appeared to be escorted by two other mother ships and a fleet of smaller warships.

The officer downloaded the data to his personal space and had the server decrypt the data so he could load it into a simulation program. The process should have been near instantaneously, but after a minute the server returned a 'Decrypt failure'. Only slightly surprised by the result he made a request to his division watch commander for time on Atlantis' database for decryption. The request was almost immediately approved. The Atlantis database was capable of handling thousands of requests at once, it would take quite a lot to create a cue.

Within a minute the data was decrypted and loaded into the simulation program. The officer entered the simulation and activated the translation. He now had the entire conversation at his hands, he could walk through it and listen in to everything that was being said, and a special program translated everything into English. The Dominion was formal to each other. One of the Dominion from the surface appeared to be explaining upcoming offensives on the twelve colonies. The SigInt officer immediately flagged the conversation as important and added several tags. He also started a facial recognition program to search for the identities of the Dominion. Though the database on the Dominion was small it did include several million faces, including high ranking military and civilian leaders.

The Dominion speaker appeared done and took a seat. A dominion form the mother ship drew the attention of the others. He started explaining a route of sorts. The SigInt officer didn't have the required knowledge to positively identify the galaxies and galactic clusters being mentioned. He made sure a more knowledgeable person would take a look at it. The speaker also included a file to his conversation. Fortunately the file was intercepted and the SigInt officer attached it to the transmission, he didn't understand what it was about, but it seemed important enough.

After about twenty minutes the conversation ended and everyone greeted one of the Dominion on the surface before disconnecting. The SigInt officer checked the facial recognition program and nearly let out a 'fuck'. He added a priority one classification and sent the entire conversation off to his superiors.

War cabinet meeting

1705 hours

The daily war cabinet meeting had been postponed twice already and a third postponement seemed imminent as the president was already five minutes late without anyone knowing where he was exactly.

A marine at the door called everyone to attention as the president walked in at a brisk speed. "Take your seat." He said as he loosened his jacket. "Sorry for the delay, that peace coalition's a real pain in the ass."

Ryan ordered some of the papers which had been prepared for him and found the agenda for the meeting which he looked over briefly. "Okay, first order of business. State, what's going on with the Selgovae and Novantae?" Ryan asked secretary of state Audrey Keller.

"The reports brought by the army about the events on Novantae, the lead up, the massacre and the somewhat disastrous armed recon by the para's, has brought about quite some public uproar with their citizens." The armed recon by the para's had gone wrong pretty quickly. The para's had been in town for just long enough to learn a new leader had taken over after the last one passed away. This new leader did not appreciate the Selgovae settlement and as a way to 'entertain' his new minions had organized the slaughter of the colony.

"Let me guess, they want us to bomb them from the Bronze Age back into the Stone Age?" General Jumper of the air force asked.

"Actually, no. they want the exact opposite. The Selgovae are quite strong believers of rehabilitation instead of pure punishment. Despite the shock of the brutality and size, the Selgovae wish to reeducate the tribe which carried out the attacks."

"How the hell do they see this become reality?" Ryan asked. He understood a race could be peaceful, but everyone had their limits.

"If we were to provide about a battalion of troops to act as guards and security personnel, they would be willing to take care of the rehabilitation side of things. They also offered to pay for it all, including the housing and maintenance of the troops." Keller said.

"Is this even legal?" The president's Chief of Staff asked.

"It's never been done before if that's what you mean." Keller said.

"He's on to something. We can't just lock up an entire tribe, that's no due process, no fair trial and whatnot." Ryan said. "We'd need either some sort of conviction or an Alliance mandate to carry this out."

"The Alliance Criminal Court?" O'Neill suggested.

"Hasn't worked yet, it's basically a joke." The secretary of justice joined in. he had been searching for some sort of law or regulation to allow such a thing. "The Selgovae could file a claim with the General Council against this tribe. It would be more like a political trial but it would be fast and efficient. It would also allow a wide range of sentencing options."

"Keller, I'd like you to inform the Selgovae of this option. We will support this sentence and are willing to provide the troops once an alliance ruling has ordered so. In the meantime I want you to inform the Nox, Asgard, Colonials and the Jaffa and ask them for their opinion."

"Yes sir." Keller said as she made some notes.

"Alright, next order of business. General O'Neill. That's all it says."

"Yes sir, it was a bit of a late addition, but an important one. Earlier today an old satellite over the Colonies picked up a conversation between a number of high-ranking Dominion leaders. The conversation was partly about their plans for their Colonial campaign and their campaign against Earth. The other part was about their itinerary back towards the dominion controlled territories. Normally this wouldn't be so important, except for the campaign plans. But it's who were present which makes it so important. We've positively identified General Willie, five of the Emperor's sons, as well as 75% or more matches on another seven sons of the Emperor, and the Emperor himself. These ID's, combined with the three extra mother ships makes it more than likely the Dominion Emperor is in fact at the Colonies as we speak and we have his full itinerary for the next four months."

"You wanna kill him." Ryan guessed.

"Yes sir." O'Neill said. "Considering the current political climate my staff has drawn up plans to engage the three Dominion mother ships after the cease fire is over. Unfortunately, this limits us to an attack outside our own galaxy, and it brings some more risks."

O'Neill stood up and walked over to a screen, it projected the course the mother ships would take. "The last time the targets are in subspace is here, at the N45-RA Nebula, beyond that point we have no way of attacking the Dominion mother ships. Therefore we have to create an opportunity. At this moment, and with your approval, General Dex is assembling three, 100 men strong strike forces who will embark on three stealth and phase shifting capable Littoral Combat Ships, modified 306 class ships belonging to the 160th 'Night Stalkers' special operations aviation regiment. These ships will set course for the Nebula and shift out of phase while waiting for the mother ships to arrive. Once those mother ships arrive, which is at the fourth of June, 2 days before our referendum, each LCS will dock with a mother ship at a location from where they can easily strike at the Hyper drive engines and capture or kill the high value targets aboard each ship."

"If we destroy the hyper drives on all three mother ships simultaneously they will drop out of hyperspace into normal space, where we can attack them. If we plan this right we can have our fleet there to attack them. The only problem being, by the time the cease fire ends, at June 11th, the mother ships are already 70 million light-years away from earth. The only way to reach them is to have our fleet jump to the ambush site, we simply cannot match the speed of three mother ships in hyperspace. Next problem, when the Dominion first invaded our galaxy, General Carter took out a mother ship by blowing up a hyper drive core with a ZPM. This has made the entire region unstable, making FTL jumps dangerous. To jump our ships over 70 million light-years away we need to use the jumpgates we've constructed at the center of the galaxy, only there we can provide enough power, unfortunately, the trajectory leads us straight through the damaged region, and we need to jump around it. This leaves us only a few options and my staff has worked out the most feasible one." O'Neill pushed some buttons and a map with the strike plan appeared.

"Operation Longbow has set us up with ten Drone command Ships in the Hydra supercluster. This is in fact close to the path the Target is taking. July 17th is the date the Dominion motherships are passing near the area currently being patrolled by our Drone ships, designated as waypoint Bravo. If we use the jump gates to send our fleet close by we would only need to spend about two weeks in hyperspace to reach the location and execute the ambush, the jump insertion point is indicated as Alpha. In order to extract our forces we'll need to set up a jump gate at a wormhole capable of giving us the required amount of power. The nearest one is indicated as Charlie, it is approximately eleven days away by hyperspace. Once we have confirmation from the fleet that they are in fact underway to waypoint Charlie we will send some supply ships with escorts to set up the jump gates. From waypoint Charlie we can jump our fleet back home. Total mission duration, 26 days assuming all goes well and no major delays are encountered, date of return, August 12th."

"Isn't that right around the revised arrival schedule for the Dominion fleet? How will this influence our plans?" Ryan asked.

"Yes, we expect the Dominion to make a dash for the Alpha site the moment the cease fire ends. Their first scout and probe units would arrive during the second week of July, with the first large assault somewhere around the 15th. Our current plan, which is to gradually increase the amount of ships to lure in more and more Dominion ships will have to be scrapped. At least until the fleet returns from their mission we will have to avoid combat with the Dominion fleet, and let the ground forces take care of any landings. All major cities have been equipped with city shields and ample troops for defense. Earth has its own planetary shield in addition to the numerous city shields currently being used as back-ups. Only after the return of our fleet can we go on the offensive and clear the local systems of Dominion units."

"How many ships do you want to send General?" The secretary of state asked.

"Our current plan calls for the use of the Enterprise, Hammond, Prometheus, Hayes, Sumner and Arizona Carrier Battle groups as well as their escorts. Also required are the first through eight Battle Groups, the Aurora Group augmented by as many Aurora's currently being upgraded at Midway due to their recent acquisition, which should be around the ten."

Everyone, including the chiefs of staff with the exception of general Allison from the Space Forces, took a minute to let it sink in. At the moment the Tau'ri Fleet consisted of exactly six Carrier Battle Groups, eight Battle Groups, a number of unattached smaller ships and a number of Aurora's.

"Perhaps I should ask which ships you're not sending into this one, that list would be shorter I think." Ryan said.

"That's correct. Only about two dozen battle cruisers and the same amount of 306's as well as a single 308 will remain in the local galaxies. We're even pulling the third Battle Fleet out of the Pegasus galaxy into this." General Allison jumped in.

"What about our orbital defenses? Defense satellites, weapons platforms etcetera?" General Maynard asked.

O'Neill looked over at his successor as Chief of Staff for the Space Forces. It was something they had missed during the planning of the mission. All the space based defenses would be destroyed without cover from the fleet. Those defenses were a crucial part in the defenses of the home systems.

Seeing that neither had an answer the Secretary of defense offered an option. "Would it possible to cloak or phase those defenses? Perhaps bring them closer together if there aren't enough cloak systems on hand."

"That might actually be a good idea, though indeed, the amount of cloak systems would probably be the bottleneck." O'Neill said. "I'll have Carter sort it out."

"General O'Neill, I'd like to get back to the amount of ships we'll send." Ryan said. "What are our expected losses, and how will this influence our ability to combat the Dominion in the Milky Way galaxy?"

"Operation Valkyrie, which is a temporary codename, will include 148 ships, ranging from 306 class ships up to the carriers and including 14 Aurora's, and nearly 400 squadrons of 302's, Falcon's and Vipers. The amount of crewmembers and pilots aboard all the ships is over the 100.000. We'll be facing three mother ships, and several hundred escort warships. We hope that because of the distance the Dominions will not be on their guard, and with the surprise on our side we will be able to overwhelm their defenses and take them out while losing less than half the fleet. This is a worst case scenario if, in fact we have the element of surprise. Best case, we'll lose ten percent or less. If we do not have the element of surprise, if the Dominion find out, we might lose the entire fleet, and the war with it." O'Neill said.

"And by loss you mean gone, destroyed right?" the secretary of state asked.

"Yes, that's not including damaged ships. Most ships will be damaged to some degree, although the figure does include those ships which will require more than six months to repair." O'Neill said.

"How about the defense of the Sol system and the other local systems?" the SecDef asked.

"If we lose more than 30 percent, we won't be able to project power beyond the Sol system, if we lose 50 percent or more we won't be able to project power within the Sol system without outside support." Allison said.

"Outside support being the Asgard and Free Jaffa, correct?" Ryan asked.

"Asgard, Nox, Free Jaffa, Ancients, Ghost Empire, and hell even the Colonials would need to help us." Allison said.

"Why not just break the truce early and attack at our earliest convenience?" Arnie van Damm, the President's Chief of Staff asked.

"Aside from the president's impeachment the next day?" the Secretary of state asked.

"If that's what it takes to deliver them a serious blow I'm willing to risk it." Ryan said.

"That's not it sir." O'Neill said. "In order to execute this strike we need to eliminate the hyper drives of the Dominion mother ships. This has to be done from the inside. If we don't disable their hyperdrives they may just run once we start winning. That's what the spec. op assault is for, to prevent their escape, and find the Dominion leaders for a 100 percent confirmed kill."

"We'd also run the risk of Dominion reinforcements being called in from nearby systems." Allison added.

"I get it. General O'Neill, you spoke of multiple options, which other options are there?" Ryan asked.

"The next available option is in November, and the one after that is in July next year." O'Neill said. "However, we cannot be certain the Dominion will completely keep to their itinerary. As it is, we are running a risk, but it's one worth taking, and with our ships attached to theirs we can be updated on their positions."

"And our fleet would have been engaged for a while." Allison added.

"I understand." Ryan nodded. "What's the security on the operation?"

"Sir, operation Valkyrie will be classified Top Secret-black. Only the people in this room, General Emerson, General Dex, the commander of the support group and a small team of planners will have clearance for the mission itself. We won't inform the house or senate until after the strike is completed. No one may know about this, not our secretaries, confidantes or spouses. The battle group commanders will be given orders orders for a rendezvous at the jumpgates. Once the jump is completed they will be briefed by General Emerson. CICC-MW and CINC-PEG will only be informed about the requisition of their fleets. If the Dominion find out what we're doing we are screwed."

"So this is it." Ryan said.

"Yes sir."

Ryan looked at the secretary of defense, after a second he got a nod from him. He moved on to the Secretary of State whom also nodded. He went round the table and everyone confirmed their agreement with a nod.

"Okay, do it." Ryan said. "Operation Valkyrie is green-lit."

Private quarters, CINC-PEG

Midway station

0423 hours, May 3

General Sheppard was woken by the chime of a top secret message arriving at his console. Assuming it to be important he put on some pants and a shirt before taking a seat at the console. As his authorization was verified and the message decoded and opened he grabbed a glass of water. He took a sip and nearly spat it all out as he read the message.

"Anything wrong john?" Chaya asked form the bed.

"Kind of yeah. They're taking the third battle group as well as any and all Aurora's we can make operational within a month. I'm gonna call O'Neill." Sheppard said as he got a jacket from the floor before he walked out of the room.

Two minutes later he returned.

"What did O'Neill say?" Chaya asked.

"Top secret, that's all he would say."

"I'm gonna have to check in with the Ascended council today, you want me to ask them if they know anything?"

"I doubt it would matter much. If O'Neill wants to keep it from me he has a good reason for it." Sheppard said. "When are you leaving?"

"I'm ready now, and it's only for an hour or two. Are you going back to sleep?"

"No, I'm already awake, I think I'll go for a run and a workout at the gym."

"Okay, see you soon." Chaya said.

Chaya started to glow in order to ascend, but she didn't change into an ascended being.

"Anything wrong?" Sheppard asked.

"I can't ascend, I don't know why" she said as she took a step towards the bed.

Before Sheppard could react she fell down, halfway on the bed.

"Chaya!" Sheppard said as he rushed over. She moaned softly in response. Not satisfied, Sheppard picked her up and made for the door.

On their way to the infirmary the few people who were in the way were told to get out of the way. After a minute or two he reached the medical center and the nurse on duty immediately called for a doctor. The doctor arrived quickly as well as several more nurses. Chaya was placed on a bed and a medical scanner was brought in position.

"What happened general?" the doctor asked.

"She collapsed as she tried to access the higher plane."

"Is she ill?"

"No, nothing I'm aware of."

"Okay, we'll figure out what she's got. Just take a seat over there and I'll be back to you when I've got something." The doctor said.

Sheppard did as asked and a curtain was placed around the bed.

Twenty minutes later the doctor walked up to him.

"How is she?"

"She's fine. She's conscious and responsive. Her physiology made it somewhat difficult for us to ascertain what caused the fainting, but we've found out eventually."

"What was it?"

"Well, apparently you haven't been obeying your own rules, more specifically the Rubber Law."

"Come again?"

"She's pregnant general. Congratulations, you're gonna be a dad." The doctor said.

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